what is the difference between technical writing and essay

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Technical Writing vs. Essay Writing: Differences & Similarities

Technical writing and essay writing are critical and valuable skills to have in any career, but they can be very different. If you are a writer who wants to learn more about technical writing and essay writing, then you have come to the right place.

Technical writing is one of the most important aspects of any business. Whether you are writing a resume or proposal, a product description, a white paper, a case study, an instruction manual, or any other document, it must be written well.

In contrast, an essay is a piece of writing that discusses an issue or topic, including a research paper, a business proposal, a term paper, or a personal essay. Technical writing is different from essay writing, but there are some similarities that you should be aware of before you start.

In this article, we compare the differences between technical writing and essay writing and explain how these two types of writing are different but also similar.

Also read: How to Create a Strong Brand Identity Through Writing

📖 Table of Contents

What is Technical Writing?

Technical writing is a subset of academic writing that focuses on the technical aspects of a particular field; it requires the writer to focus on a specific topic or subject and write about it in a specific way. It is a specialized form of writing that involves using specific skills and techniques.

Technical writing includes all forms that require specialized vocabulary and specialized language to convey information. The writer must also understand the subject to write about it.

The content of technical writing is usually focused on a particular subject to convey information to the reader. The writer has to consider the audience, the context, and the purpose of the document. The audience for technical writing is diverse, and technical writers must be able to communicate effectively across a wide range of audiences.

It is generally used for documentation , instructional design, and other documents requiring clear and concise communication. This includes the definition, explanation, and analysis of concepts and ideas. Software engineers, technical writers, and product managers often use technical writing.

Some common types of Technical Writing are:

• Medical and Scientific Papers.
• User Manuals and Assistance Guides.
• Books and guides by Technical Writers.
• Assembly Manuals.
• Technical Documents, Reviews, and Reports.

What is Essay Writing?

Essay writing is a widespread type of writing. It is usually used to describe or explain a particular topic. The main idea of an essay is to discuss a topic and give your opinion. An essay is different from a story because it usually has more than one point. Essays are often used to write about what people believe and why they believe it.

They are also often used to write about personal experiences. It is not just about telling a story. An essay also includes a body paragraph that explains the reasons for your opinion. In an essay, you can use different kinds of sentences to express your opinion. You can use a question sentence to start your essay.

Essays are usually concise and are written in the third person. You should always do some research before you start writing your essay. This is because it is essential to know what you are talking about. If you don’t know what you are talking about, then you might not be able to express yourself adequately. You should always use the correct vocabulary and grammar to ensure that you can express yourself well.

You may think that essay writing is not a hard thing to do, but there are many things you need to know before you start writing your essay. If you are unsure how to start your essay, You can take essay help from online sites, and it is always advised to learn these skills at the earliest possible time. They can help you write an essay that is good and original.

A good essay starts with an introduction and includes three parts: a body (the main body), a conclusion, and a reference list. An introduction introduces the topic and states your opinion about it. It also provides the reasons for your opinion. A body explains your opinion, often by providing evidence for it. A conclusion sums up your points. It is usually written in the first person and ends in a question.

There are many types of essays. Some common types of Essay Writing are:

Argumentative: This type of essay is all about convincing your reader. Persuasive: This type of essay is all about persuading your reader. Narrative: This type of essay is all about telling a story. Explanation: This type of essay is all about explaining a concept. Description: This type of essay is all about describing something.

Technical Writing vs Essay Writing: The Differences

While both types of writing require research and a high level of organization, there are many critical differences between the two. When it comes to technical writing, there’s a lot of confusion about it. On the one hand, it’s often lumped in with “technical writing”, which is a fancy way of saying “writing”.

On the other hand, it’s often confused with “essay writing”, a more academic-sounding word that means “a piece of writing that discusses a specific topic or argument.” In other words, technical writing focuses on describing a specific topic, while essays focus on providing a point of view.

In technical writing, you’re writing about a topic or field of study that you are already familiar with. You’re writing about a topic you’ve studied before, and you’re writing about a topic you’ve written about in the past.

In essay writing, you’re writing about a topic or field of study that you’re unfamiliar with. You’re writing about a topic you haven’t studied before, and you’re writing about a topic you have never written about before.

• Technical writing tends to be more formal, while essay writing is more informal.
• Technical writing involves a lot of facts and figures, while essay writing tends to be more opinion based.
• Technical writing is more structured and organized, while essay writing is more open-ended and free-flowing.
• Technical writing tends to be less personal than essay writing.
• Technical writing tends to be more factual and objective, while essay writing is more subjective and personal.

Technical Writing vs Essay Writing: The Similarities

While there are some similarities between technical writing and essay writing, they are very different in terms of the purpose they serve and how they are used.

Both of them require the same time and effort. Both technical writing and essay writing are time-consuming processes. This is because the skills are based on facts and figures. Hence, the only thing that matters is to write the content correctly.

Both these skills are based on facts and figures; hence the preparation of both of these are the same. Hence, it is always advisable to prepare the facts and figures in advance. However, in technical writing, it is necessary to be more organized.

Both of them need the same skills and knowledge. In technical writing, you need to have good writing skills. You need to be able to use proper grammar and spelling. Also, you need to be well-versed with technical jargon. In essay writing, you need to understand the concepts of the topics and be able to present your thoughts coherently.

Both technical writing and essay writing must be presented in different mediums.

Both of them need to be revised several times . Both technical writing and essay writing are required to be revised several times. The technical writers need to revise the written document for technical errors. Similarly, the essay writers need to revise the paper for grammatical and spelling mistakes.

Also read: 12 Best Writing Tools for Bloggers

The two main types of writing that students and businesses encounter are technical writing and essay writing. There are many misconceptions about technical writing and essay writing. It is essential to know the similarities and differences between these two skills.

Both technical writing and essay writing focus on a particular subject; however, technical writing requires a more in-depth understanding, whereas essay writing requires a more broad understanding. Both these skills require a considerable amount of time and effort.

It’s easy to confuse the two because they both use the same format. However, technical writing and essay writing differ in their purpose. Technical writing aims to provide accurate information about a product or service, while essay writing aims to prove a theory or a point of view.

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Technical Writing vs. Essay Writing

Major variations of writing in both styles, beyond common writing distinctions, key challenges, how is technical writing different from writing an essay.

• Read in 07 mins
• 14-Nov-2023

When we think of writing, we often connect it with articles, blogs or essays. But do you know there are many different styles and formats to consider while writing content? The two most popular writing types we are going to discuss here are technical writing and essay writing. Both of the styles involve the use of words and language to communicate ideas and information to a specific audience.

However, there are some key differences between the two styles that set them totally apart. Understanding these differences can help identify which approach is best suited for your particular needs. Through this article, we will explore how technical writing is different from writing an essay, their characteristics, as well as tips on how to excel in each style.

Technical writing and essay writing are two interesting styles of writing that have their unique characteristics and purposes for a diverse audience. So, whether you're a student working on an academic paper or a professional looking to communicate complex ideas, read on to discover the right way!

Technical writing focuses on providing clear and straightforward informative content to help readers understand complicated concepts. At the same time, essay writing aims to convince and engage readers with well-developed arguments and analysis. Understanding the difference between the two styles can help you figure out which approach is right for you.

For example , if you were writing a technical manual on how to assemble a computer, you would use technical writing to provide step-by-step instructions with clear diagrams and explanations. On the other hand, if you were writing an essay on the benefits of renewable energy, you would use essay writing to present compelling arguments supported by evidence and expert opinions.

Technical writing is highly objective and focuses on practicality and efficiency, aiming to convey information in a concise and precise manner. It is often used in fields such as engineering, technology, and science. Essay writing is more subjective and allows for the expression of personal opinions and interpretations. It is commonly employed in academic settings and aims to persuade and engage readers through effective rhetoric and logical reasoning.

Understanding the appropriate style for your purpose can greatly enhance the effectiveness of your writing and ensure that your intended message reaches and resonates with your target audience.

Four major variations of writing can be found in both technical and essay writing styles.

Formality and Tone

• Technical Writing: The language in this style is straightforward and specific. It resembles a set of instructions for assembling structured content, avoiding unnecessary details, and focusing on clarity.
• Essay Composition: Now consider it as a letter to a friend. It's informal, like a casual chat. The tone can be personal, expressing emotions and opinions freely. An essay weaves a narrative, allowing the writer's voice to shine through.

Use of Jargon

• Technical Writing: It often includes industry-specific terms and jargon. The goal is to communicate efficiently within a particular field, assuming a level of knowledge among the readers.
• Essay Composition: Essays generally avoid excessive jargon, opting for easy and accessible language. The emphasis is on connecting with a broader audience, making the content relatable and engaging.

Structural Framework

• Technical Writing: Technical documents follow a structured and logical format, just like maps. Whether it's a manual or a report, the information is organized systematically, allowing readers to navigate with ease.
• Essay Composition: Essays have a more flexible structure. While they may have an introduction, body, and conclusion, the content flows naturally, allowing for creativity and exploration of ideas.

Audience Considerations

• Technical Writing: Technical writing is tailored to a specific audience with a particular knowledge base. It assumes the readers have a certain level of expertise in the subject matter.
• Essay Composition: Essays adapt to various readerships, considering a broader spectrum of backgrounds and interests. The goal is to engage and resonate with a diverse group of readers.

Technical writing and essay writing both require solid skills in writing along with the ability to communicate information effectively. Let us understand some unexplored distinctions that can help writers tailor their approach and achieve their intended goals.

Intent of Communication

• Technical writing mainly serves a practical purpose. It aims to express information, focusing on delivering instructions or presenting facts. The focus here is on providing guidance or documentation for a specific task or process.
• Essay writing takes a more exploratory route. Essays are a platform for expressing ideas, opinions, and emotions. They invite readers to delve into the writer's thoughts, often without a predetermined practical outcome.

Emotional Engagement

• Technical writing is more objective and factual. The major goal is the transmission of information with minimal emotional engagement or personal biases.
• Essay writing encourages emotional connection. Essays often involve personal reflections, storytelling, or persuasive elements that light up emotions and relate with the reader on a more personal level.

Flexibility in Structure

• Technical writing follows a structured and standardized format. Whether it's a manual or a report, our technical writing services follow a predetermined framework to ensure clarity and consistency.
• Essay writing embraces a more flexible structure. It allows for creativity in the organization, enabling writers to experiment with different formats to suit the content and convey ideas effectively.

Language Complexity

• Technical writing prioritizes clarity over literary flair. The language used is straightforward, avoiding unnecessary complexity. The focus is on delivering information comprehensively to a specific audience.
• Essay writing celebrates the beauty of language. Essays often employ a more varied and expressive vocabulary, allowing writers to craft sentences that convey not only information but also evoke a particular atmosphere or emotion.

Objective & Subjective Evaluation

• Technical writing is subject to objective evaluation. Technical documents are assessed based on accuracy, clarity, and adherence to predefined standards. Success is measured by how effectively it fulfills its intended purpose.
• Essay writing involves subjective evaluation. The assessment of an essay includes factors such as creativity, originality, and the ability to engage the reader emotionally. Success is often measured by the impact on the reader's perspective.

Facing challenges is a natural part of life, and in various aspects, understanding the key challenges helps us find effective solutions. Here are some informative pointers illustrating key challenges to shed light on these hurdles:

Resource Limitations

Limited budgets and resources constrain growth and innovation. These limitations can hinder the ability to implement new ideas and strategies. In order to succeed in writing an impactful essay, it is important to incorporate factors such as creativity, originality, and the ability to engage the reader emotionally. However, one must also navigate technical communication hurdles and find a balance between creativity and coherence in the narrative.

Adapting to Change

Change is constant, but coping with it can be not easy. It requires individuals and organizations to be flexible and open-minded, willing to embrace new ideas and approaches. Adapting to change also involves overcoming resistance and fear of the unknown, as well as continuously learning and evolving to stay relevant in a rapidly changing world.

Market Competition

Staying competitive in a crowded market is a perpetual struggle. Companies must innovate and differentiate themselves to stand out from their competitors regularly. It involves understanding customer needs and preferences, conducting market research, and developing unique value propositions.

Regulatory Compliance

Following through complex regulations requires ongoing effort. Businesses must stay updated on changes in regulations, ensure their operations comply, and allocate resources to implement necessary changes. It may involve hiring legal experts or consultants to navigate the complexities of regulatory requirements and mitigate potential risks.

Talent Acquisition and Retention

Attracting and retaining skilled employees is a continuous battle. Businesses must develop effective recruitment strategies, offer competing remuneration packages, and develop a positive work environment to attract top talent. Additionally, implementing employee retention programs and providing opportunities for growth and development can help retain skilled employees and reduce turnover rates.

Technical writing and essays are distinct but equally valuable. In this guide, we have understood how technical writing is different from writing an essay. While technical writing ensures precision in conveying information, essays bring a personal touch, enriching the world of words with creativity.

As technical writing excels at delivering information with precision, essays unfold as a canvas for personal expression and exploration of ideas. Recognizing these differences empowers writers to choose the most suitable form based on their communication objectives and the nature of the content.

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

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Technical Writing vs Academic Writing: Key Differences You Need to Know

When it comes to writing, two styles stand out in professional and academic fields: technical writing style and academic writing style. These two writing styles are closely interconnected, and hence, it is important to understand the differences between them. By understanding the unique features of these two writing styles you’ll be able to effectively communicate the information in various contexts. 

In this article, we’ll explore the intricacies of technical writing vs academic writing . Furthermore, we’ll also try to shed light on the primary purposes, audience, and stylistic differences of such writings. 

What is Academic Writing?

Academic writings are usually written in a formal style. This writing style is commonly used in research publications, journals, etc. In academic writing, you are required to report the original research findings. Moreover, you are also required to review and add existing literature and you have to engage in critical discourse on specific subjects. 

What is Technical Writing?

On the other hand, technical writing is a form of written communication that aims to convey complex information clearly and concisely. Technical writings are usually found in the fields of engineering, technology, science, and medicine. It aims to explain complex concepts to laymen without using difficult jargon and terminology . 

Technical Writing vs Academic Writing – An Overview:

Whether you are writing a technical manual for an application or a research paper for a scholarly journal, it is essential to learn how to write for a specific audience and purpose. Let’s have a look at what makes the two styles different:

Diving Deeper: Technical vs Academic Writing with Examples :

This table provides an overview of academic vs technical writing . Let us further elaborate on some of the essential key differences and discuss them in detail with the help of examples. 

• Purpose of Technical vs Academic Writings:

The purpose of technical writing is to provide practical information or instruction in a clear and concise manner to the users. Technical writings are understandable and easily usable. Examples include technical manuals for operating machinery, user guides for software applications, product documentation for consumer electronics, and many more. 

On the other hand, the purpose of academic writing is to contribute to the existing knowledge within a particular field. Academic writings serve to advance understanding by uncovering new insights through rigorous research and analysis. Examples include research papers on climate change, essays on literary analysis, dissertations on psychological theories, scholarly articles on quantum physics,  and more.

• Technical Writing Style vs Academic Writing Style:

The style of technical writing is straightforward, clear, and concise. It focuses on the clarity and usability of the content. While writing a technical writing writers use plain language, avoiding unnecessary jargon and complex terminology. Moreover, visual aids such as diagrams, charts, and illustrations are used in technical writing to improve understanding of the concept. Additionally, it is really important to maintain an objective tone, avoiding any bias.

On the other hand, an academic article is written in a formal style, it follows a specific structure usually observed in scholarly discourses. The writer uses subject-related terminology & jargon. It is characterized by precision, objectivity, and critical analysis, and emphasizes clarity and logical coherence. Specific citation styles, such as APA, and MLA, are employed to acknowledge sources and provide evidence for the arguments. The tone is typically formal and objective, which reflects a commitment to intellectual rigor and scholarly integrity.

• Audience Considerations for both the Writings:

Technical writing has a diverse audience. The audience usually consists of individuals with varying levels of expertise. This is why technical writers should communicate complex ideas clearly so that they can be understood by both experts and novices. The audience may include users, stakeholders , engineers, or other professionals who might be seeking practical information or instructions. 

In contrast, the audience of academic writing consists of scholars, researchers, students, and other academics within a specific discipline. As the audience has a deep understanding of the subject matter, hence specialized jargon and terminology are used. 

• Structure of Technical & Academic Writing

Technical writing follows a structure that suits practicality and usability. The ideas are organized linearly or hierarchically which facilitates comprehension. For example, a technical article on cybersecurity vulnerabilities will follow a structured format including a summary, methodology, findings, and recommendations which will allow the reader to quickly access relevant information. 

In comparison, academic writing follows a strict format. Its format includes sections like introduction, literature review, methodology, results, discussion, and conclusion.

It is not necessary for technical writing to include citations, but it is important to give credit to any source used in your writing. Moreover, there is no strict format for adding a citation.

Academic writings , on the other hand, include citations in either MLA, APA, or Chicago format. It is necessary to give credit to avoid plagiarism. Moreover, the resources used even support and strengthen the argument. 

• Publication Medium

Technical writings are usually published online. These can even be published in print form such as manuals, guides, technical documents, or online documentation systems for practical use in industries, businesses, or educational settings. For example, a technical guide.

Since academic writings are scholarly works, they are published in academic journals, books, conference proceedings, or scholarly publications within specific disciplines. This sort of writing utilizes the already-existing research to contribute to the advancement of knowledge. 

Since technical writings are written for practicality or usability these include manuals, step-by-step guides, and more. Such writings cater to individuals with varying levels of expertise. 

Academic writings on the other hand are written for the advancement of knowledge and include scholarly articles, research papers, essays, or dissertations. These writings cater to the needs of academic experts.

Visit My Essay Writer for Online Academic Writing Services 

Although technical and academic writing are closely related there are still some essential differences that should be understood in order to effectively communicate the idea. By understanding the differences between the two writings writers can tailor strategies to effectively engage their target audience and achieve their goal. 

Are you looking to further enhance your writing skills? Explore the online academic writing services offered by My Essay Writer . They can help you with almost everything, including dissertations, essays, research papers, and more. Their team of experienced writers offers assistance around the clock.

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Q: What is the primary purpose of technical writing?

A: The purpose of technical writing is to provide practical information or instruction in a clear and concise manner to the users. Such writing avoids the use of complex jargon and terminology so that it is easily understandable by experts and novices. 

Q: How is the audience of academic writing different from the audience of technical writing?

A: Technical writing has a diverse audience including users, stakeholders, and other professionals, while on the other hand, academic writing has a limited audience. Its audience usually includes scholars, researchers, and academics within a specific discipline.

Q: What are some stylistic differences between technical writing and academic writing?

A: Technical writing is written in a straightforward and concise style that focuses on clarity and usability. While academic writing has a more formal and structured style, which adheres to the conventions of scholarly discourse and critical analysis.

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Table of Contents

(1) Proving vs. Instructing

Academic writing is all about proving something in one way or the other.

Technical writing , on the other hand, is all about instructing how to do something to achieve a specific goal.

(2) Knowledge vs. Solution

Academic writing aims at expanding our knowledge of the world.

Technical writing , on the other hand, aims at offering solutions to specific problems that we are faced with in the world.

(3) Win argument vs. Change behavior

Academic writing tries to win a rational argument by offering evidence, precedence, and reference.

Technical writing , on the other hand, tries to change our behavior by instructing us the logical steps through which we can complete a task successfully.

About Ugur Akinci

Academic Writing vs. Technical Writing

What's the difference.

Academic writing and technical writing are two distinct forms of writing that serve different purposes and audiences. Academic writing is primarily used in educational settings and focuses on presenting arguments, analyzing information, and supporting claims with evidence. It is often more formal and structured, with a focus on clarity and coherence. On the other hand, technical writing is used in professional and technical fields to convey complex information in a clear and concise manner. It is characterized by its use of specialized terminology, diagrams, and instructions. While both forms require precision and accuracy, academic writing emphasizes critical thinking and research, while technical writing prioritizes clarity and usability.

Further Detail

Introduction.

Academic writing and technical writing are two distinct forms of writing that serve different purposes and audiences. While both require clarity and precision, they differ in terms of their objectives, styles, and intended readership. In this article, we will explore the attributes of academic writing and technical writing, highlighting their similarities and differences.

Academic writing primarily aims to contribute to the existing body of knowledge in a particular field. It focuses on research, analysis, and critical thinking, often presenting arguments or theories supported by evidence. The goal is to engage with scholarly conversations and advance understanding within the academic community.

On the other hand, technical writing aims to provide practical information and instructions to help users understand and use a product, system, or process. It focuses on clarity, accuracy, and usability, aiming to communicate complex concepts in a straightforward manner. The objective is to facilitate comprehension and enable users to perform specific tasks or solve problems.

Style and Tone

Academic writing typically adopts a formal and objective tone. It emphasizes logical reasoning, evidence-based arguments, and a neutral perspective. The language used is precise, concise, and avoids colloquialisms or personal opinions. The writing style is often dense and complex, with long sentences and specialized vocabulary that may require familiarity with the subject matter.

On the other hand, technical writing adopts a clear and concise style. It prioritizes simplicity and accessibility, using plain language and avoiding jargon or unnecessary complexity. The tone is often instructional and user-focused, aiming to guide readers through a process or explain a concept step-by-step. Technical writing also frequently incorporates visual aids such as diagrams, charts, or illustrations to enhance understanding.

Academic writing is primarily intended for an audience of scholars, researchers, and experts in a specific field. It assumes a certain level of knowledge and familiarity with the subject matter, allowing for in-depth discussions and specialized terminology. The readers are typically seeking to expand their understanding or engage in scholarly debates.

On the other hand, technical writing targets a broader audience that may include both experts and non-experts. It aims to provide information or instructions that can be easily understood and applied by users with varying levels of expertise. Technical writing often considers the needs of beginners or individuals with limited background knowledge, ensuring that the content is accessible and user-friendly.

Structure and Formatting

Academic writing follows a specific structure that includes an introduction, literature review, methodology, results, discussion, and conclusion. It often includes citations and references to support claims and provide evidence. The formatting style, such as APA or MLA, is determined by the academic discipline and includes guidelines for citations, headings, and formatting of the document.

On the other hand, technical writing typically follows a more modular structure. It may include sections such as an introduction, overview, step-by-step instructions, troubleshooting, and frequently asked questions. The content is organized in a logical and sequential manner, allowing users to easily locate the information they need. Technical writing also often includes visual elements, such as headings, bullet points, and numbered lists, to enhance readability and facilitate navigation.

While academic writing and technical writing share the common goal of effective communication, they differ significantly in terms of objectives, style, readership, and structure. Academic writing focuses on research, analysis, and contributing to scholarly conversations, while technical writing aims to provide practical information and instructions to users. The style and tone of academic writing are formal and objective, while technical writing adopts a clear and concise approach. Academic writing targets an audience of experts, while technical writing caters to a broader range of readers. Understanding these distinctions is crucial for writers to adapt their approach and effectively communicate in the appropriate context.

Comparisons may contain inaccurate information about people, places, or facts. Please report any issues.

What is Technical Writing?

Table of Contents

Traditional definition of technical writing, new definition of technical writing, how is technical writing different than business writing, what is the job of a technical writer, career outlook for a technical writer, types of technical writing, a day in the life of a technical writer, skills needed for technical writing, how to improve your technical writing skills, the world is a tech writer’s oyster.

Are you looking to understand what technical writing is and how you can become more proficient?

Technical writing continues to be a highly coveted skill in the professional workplace. Demand is expected to grow at 10% from 2014 to 2024. This is faster than the average for all occupations.

In this article, we cover the exact definition of technical writing. We also show you an average day for a technical writer, how to improve your skills when writing complex documents, and why the field is quickly changing.

What is technical writing? The traditional definition of technical writing is:

Technical writing is the practice of documenting processes, such as software manuals or instructional materials. Traditionally, it was limited to user manuals of some sort.

Frankly, this definition has become outdated. Technology moves quickly, and lexicographers are often left playing catch up.

Today, technical writing encompasses all documentation of complex technical processes. It includes reports, executive summary statements, and briefs. Any time technical information is conveyed in writing at work, it is, by definition, technical writing.

This can include high-tech manufacturing, engineering, biotech, energy, aerospace, finance, IT, and global supply chain.

The format is no longer bound to lengthy user manuals. Technical information must be distilled and presented unambiguously. This can come in the form of technical reports, emails, policy, briefs, and press releases.

The bottom line is if you work in a technical field you are most likely performing technical writing.

The new definition starts to sound a lot like the definition of business writing .

However, a business writer focuses on business plans, case studies, e-books, and sales/marketing collateral. They are experts in strategy and business management. 

In contrast, technical writers have a strong aptitude in the field of science, engineering, or IT. They are tasked with the compilation of technical documents such as instruction manuals and other instructional materials, guidebooks, technical product descriptions, and research reports.

There are quite a few differences between the two, which you can read about in this article .

Become a technical writer today and advance your career in our course

Our Technical Report Writing course includes instructor feedback and guidance at key points while you write an actual work document. Receive one-on-one coaching to review your final document.

The job of a technical writer will differ depending on the industry and company that they are employed with. But t he important task of a technical writer is taking the highly complicated and sometimes confusing subject matter, and putting it in a digestible format.

This is of particular importance in a variety of industries but specifically science or technology such as biotech, engineering, manufacturing, software, and healthcare. 

Technical writers often work on multidisciplinary teams functioning as the mediator between the more technical staff and less technical readers. They will work closely with these teams to develop a communications strategy.

Their responsibilities can extend beyond just writing. They must understand the entire project from high-level goals to the intricacies of implementation.

Educational experience for a technical writer can vary, but the majority of professionals hold a BA in English with an emphasis in writing, journalism, communications, curriculum development, IT, software/computer, or engineering. Some also possess an MA in technical writing. 

Over the past couple of years, the workplace has undergone a revolution in terms of how we communicate with colleagues, clients, and end-users. Due to fewer face-to-face meetings, technology , and the written word have become more important. This is a perfect platform for the burgeoning of the field of technical writing. 

Technical writing jobs are growing at a faster rate than average, at 12%. The salary range of a technical writer varies, but the average median wage is $61,671 . A technical writer is defined as one who authors descriptive manuals and guides as it relates to the complex subject matter. Job duties include:

• Researching topics
• Writing technical documentation
• Editing for publications
• Revising technical documents (guidebook, reports, brochures, articles)

Check out the summary table below highlighting the differences in types of technical writing and industries that need these documents:

At first, it may be overwhelming to see so many different types of technical documents. But each document uses a similar writing process and draws on an established set of skills. If you develop a process, you can apply it to any technical document you are creating.

Many excellent writers are intrigued by the work environment of a professional technical writer . They find the quiet and tranquility of the atmosphere as a genuine job perk. Being alone with just a computer for researching and crafting documents through a technical writing process appeals to the introverted. Writers from all corners of the globe share their love for a job that can be more of a passion. 

When defining what technical writing is , it’s important to look at the persona of a technical writer and explore dominant character traits. Unsurprisingly, a professional in this field is marked as artistic and investigative . They are especially inquisitive. A fun fact is that Leonardo da Vinci is deemed the most famous technical writer of all time. Apparently, during the period of the Renaissance, he wrote ‘user manuals’ for his unique inventions.

As you further your understanding of technical writing and your technical knowledge, you may want to evaluate if it matches your personality type. It’s recommended to do a self-assessment and consider your personal strengths and talents when pursuing a new professional career.

To be a successful technical writer, there is a core set of skills that you will want to master. Here are some of the most common skills needed to be successful:  

Research is one of the first steps in technical writing. After you have an assignment, you will be responsible for collecting the data (numerical and non-numerical) and turning it into valuable information.

Research can come from a variety of places including:

• On-Site Data
• Online and Intranet Publications
• Libraries and Research Databases

After you have researched, you will need to synthesize and begin planning your document organization.

Audience perception

The technical information you research and gather has to be shaped for reader interest, understanding, and perception.

Technical writers often have to communicate highly technical information to a non-technical audience. Therefore, an early step in the most effective technical writing process is analyzing your audience carefully so you can match information to their needs.

Communication skills

Communication skills are imperative to be a successful technical writer. You will likely be working with multiple teams and individuals from differing roles.

Your ability to listen, record, and communicate will be crucial.

Technical skills

It is imperative that you understand the technical nature of the content you are writing about.

It is difficult to convey a concept that you have not mastered clearly. Many technical writers have academic or work experience in the topic they are writing about and many technical writers have job titles of engineer, geologist, seismologist, financial analyst, or business analyst. They are employed in technical positions and have to summarize information cross-functionally to other areas of the company.

Technical writing is slightly easier if you come from the technical side and are learning to write. It is sometimes more difficult if your background is in writing and you are trying to learn the technical content.

Excellent writing skills ensure your documents are easy to read and are free of errors. Writing encompasses many of the other skills on this list.

It is important that you have the correct tone, style, and format for your document.

Often these rules are outlined by the employing organization in a style guide.

Document design

It is important that the graphics aid the reader in comprehending the information. Graphs, tables, and charts are commonplace in technical reports.

You will also need to be proficient in formatting documents. The formatting should be professional and aid the reader in navigating the document. Headings should be easy to skim, and the content should be organized logically.

A poorly designed document will make it more difficult for the reader to understand the content. Document design is a key aspect of technical writing.

Fluency with digital tools

Today, writers must use multiple tools during the technical writing process. This often goes beyond basic text editors. Technical writers are expected to be able to create graphics and annotate images and screen captures and extract data from Excel and convey that data in charts and tables.

User research and testing

Some forms of technical writing may require user research and testing. An example application where detailed research and testing would be appropriate is a written guide instructing engineers how to fix a faulty mechanism on a deep ocean oil rig.

It is important that the documentation is easy to follow, especially if the application is crucial to a major function. To accurately write the guide, the writer may first observe how engineers solve the problem. They may use recording devices or just notes to write down the research. This type of research is closely related to testing.

Testing is necessary to ensure your document functions as intended.

After the writer has completed a draft of the document, they may give it to a test group to read. They can then observe the end users following the instructions in real-time.

They may follow up with a focus group or survey to get feedback on the usefulness of the document. They will use these real-world insights as they revise the document.

Even in less complex or critical applications, it is always a good idea to have a third party read over the text. This helps combat the curse of knowledge. The curse of knowledge is a cognitive bias that an individual has when trying to explain something they already understand. As an expert, it is hard to put yourself in the shoes of a learner who is less experienced.

This is why having a second set of eyes look at the document can help alert you to areas that need to be improved. 

Write any technical document and get instructor feedback and live coaching on your actual writing.

Our technical writing course is available for individuals and groups.

Here are several ways to improve your overall technical writing skills:

One of the best ways to become a better writer is to read. Reading helps you train your brain to understand how to write. The more you read, the easier writing will become for you.

It is critical that you are reading relevant and high-quality documents. Look for documents produced by competitors or writers in related industries. Examine their writing to determine how they organize information through written text.

Create a process

Having a process keeps you from “getting stuck” while writing. Having a clear workflow will help you systematically accomplish your work. We teach a specific process for technical report writing in our technical writing course .

Seek feedback

Getting subjective and objective feedback on your writing is one of the fastest ways to improve your skills. That is why we emphasize individual feedback in all of our courses.

To improve your writing, you need someone to review not only the grammar and syntax but also your approach and methods as a writer.

To truly master technical writing you need to get feedback from a mentor. This may be someone in your organization or through a professional development group. Another great option if you are taking an online course is working with your instructor to improve your writing techniques.

Take a course

Taking a class can be one of the most efficient ways to boost your writing skills quickly. You want to ensure you are enrolling in a course that specializes in technical writing.

It is imperative that the course includes one-on-one feedback and instruction. If you are considering taking an online course (or hiring an instructor to conduct an on-site or virtual workshop) make sure to check out our guide on how to choose an online business writing course .

Repetition is the key to cementing your new skills. Look to incorporate new concepts into your work. You can even review old work to critique what you would do differently if you were to write the document today.

Verify that the course you take includes practice opportunities. For example, does the course require you to map the organization and sequence of a technical document? Since this is a core technical writing skill, you want to make sure you get professional feedback on your ability to do this.

Now that you know precisely what technical writing is , it is an easy path forward. For the curious, educated, and lover of being alone with a laptop and cup of joe, you may view the prospect of a technical writer as the perfect gig. 

The future is bright and the availability of job opportunities is wide. This is the ideal position for those seeking a second promising career or fresh out of school and in search of a writing position that holds great promise. For professionals who claim techno-savvy combined with writing prowess, this is a time of opportunity. Check out the multitude of job openings and job titles in technical writing spanning industry segments. 

Online courses can help you become a stronger technical writer, increase your knowledge level, and hone excellent writing skills. To get ramped up ASAP, enroll in a special technical writing course tailored to aspiring and seasoned technical writers. 

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Technical Writing vs. Academic Writing

Anthony fonseca, 25 jun 2018.

The biggest mistake people make when they start writing is not identifying the type of writing they're attempting. Each style or mode of writing is situational; no one style is better than another. All writing is a purposeful act, meaning it has a clear goal or desired outcome, and the style used should be the best to achieve that goal. Two of these effective but entirely different styles are technical and academic writing.

Explore this article

• Technical Writing
• Academic Writing
• Choosing a Style

1 Technical Writing

Technical writing is closely related to the process, or "how to," essay. Its function is to clearly explain the steps to accomplishing a task so anyone can do it. As such, its audience is the average layperson. Many technical writing assignments are reminiscent of instruction manuals; this is because manual writing is one type of technical writing. Other types would include business letters, memos, product descriptions, warning labels and, to some extent, editorial letters.

2 Academic Writing

Academic writing is by definition more complex because most academic writing is tied to a specific discipline or field, which means it can become jargon-laden. This occurs even in the business and computer sectors, two areas known for their emphasis on technical writing. Scholarly articles and textbooks in either of those disciplines will contain as much jargon and as many complex ideas as the most challenging essay in literature, art or music. This is to be expected because all fields have both specialized knowledge and specialized terminology.

3 Choosing a Style

The important thing to remember is the first rule of writing taught in most composition classes at every level: know the audience. The Plain Language Association International identifies audience and purpose as the first two considerations in writing. You determine whether to write in a technical or academic style based on who you are writing for, which is related to the intent of your writing. For example, if you are trying to place an article on crayfish genetics in a journal, you would write in the style the editors will most likely accept, which would be scholarly or academic. If you were creating a study guide on crayfish genetics for college freshmen, you would use a technical writing style to make sure that important points are understood. By the same token, if you were adapting this study guide to high school students, you would make it even more basic.

When you choose between technical and academic writing, begin by thinking who will read the document, and then ask yourself what it is you want the document to accomplish. If your main goal is to inform a diverse, generalized audience, you will likely need to use a technical style. If the desired outcome is to persuade, it's likely you will want an academic style, unless your audience is the layperson, as with a letter to the editor.

• 1 Technical Communication Center: 3 Important Differences Between Academic versus Technical Writing
• 2 Machine Design: 6 Tips for Technical Writing

About the Author

Anthony Fonseca is the library director at Elms College in Massachusetts. He has a doctorate in English and has taught various writing courses and literature survey courses. His books include readers' advisory guides, pop culture encyclopedias and academic librarianship studies.

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Writing Essays

Dawn Atkinson

The current chapter focuses on essays , pieces of persuasive writing developed around defined topics. This genre’s persuasiveness rests in large part on its logical structure, inclusion of quality evidentiary support, and consistent design, as explained herein; hence, essay writing calls for planning, researching, synthesizing, and revising. Although essays are generally considered a form of academic rather than technical writing, the division is not absolute, and the prevalence of essay assignments in both writing and other university-level courses merits our focus on them here.

While reading this chapter, keep in mind that college essays typically require use of a formal writing style, although the specifics may vary depending on the particular assignment and area of study. For an overview of formal writing guidelines, see the George Mason University Writing Center’s (2017) handout entitled “Reducing Informality in Academic Writing” ( https://writingcenter.gmu.edu/guides/reducing-informality-in-academic-writing ).

Essays can be divided into two broad types: expository and argumentative essays. To define these categories using information adapted from Student Academic Success Services, Queen’s University (2018b, para. 13), expository essays explain—they teach, illustrate, or clarify a subject for a reader—while argumentative essays make claims and seek to convince a reader to accept a position or point of view.

Focusing an Essay

For an essay topic to be manageable, its focus must be narrow enough so that it can be addressed adequately within the word or page count available; however, the topic should not be so narrow so as to impede your research efforts. When deciding on a topic, conduct initial research using library or internet resources to get a sense of current scholarship in the area, as well as points of agreement and contention, which may lead you to a focused direction for research. To pinpoint your particular interest in a topic, you might also consider using listing, mind mapping, outlining, freewriting, looping, or questioning, the brainstorming strategies described in the “Maintaining a Productive Writing Schedule” chapter of this textbook. Talking with your instructor or a librarian about a topic may also help you decide a paper’s focus.

What other methods could you use to narrow the focus of an essay?

Figure 1, a multi-page handout adapted from the Writing and Communication Centre, University of Waterloo (n.d.a, pp. 2-3), illustrates the process of narrowing an essay topic.

Developing and Narrowing a Topic

Develop and Narrow a Topic

A well-written paper depends on a strong topic that is focused and specific. To get there, you need to develop some topic ideas, choose the best one, and narrow that topic further.

Developing A Topic

Researching your subject, brainstorming ideas, and sharing your ideas with others are three steps that can help you develop a strong topic.

Do your research

Doing preliminary research will help you to discover what people who work on the topic are interested in or concerned about.

There are countless ways to brainstorm ideas for a topic; below are three common approaches.

• Freewriting: Jot down ideas without revising or proofreading
• Questioning: Write down questions you have about your topic without revising or proofreading
• Mapping: Starting with a main topic, write down subtopics that come to mind, drawing links that show how the different subtopics relate.

Talk about your ideas

Talking to others helps you to understand your ideas from a reader’s perspective. It can help you refine the topic or even move in a new direction.

Narrowing Your Topic

Narrowing your topic makes your work more manageable and your paper more likely to succeed. A good paper takes a smaller portion of a larger issue or problem and investigates that part in depth. Narrowing your topic allows you to choose a problem that is specific enough to research with vigour. Below is an example of the process:

Move from abstract to concrete

A manageable topic is concrete. As we narrow the scope of a topic, the subject matter moves from abstract concepts to ideas that are more precise. Let’s use bicycles, again, as our example.

Main topic:  Bicycles

Subtopics: Design, Safety, Health impacts, Charity drives, Bicycle usage, Bicycles and education, Reuse, Infrastructure, Environmental impacts, Policies, Bicycles and urban development, Bicycles and commercial products, Bicycle culture

Although bicycles are concrete “things,” the word bicycles could mean different things to different people. These ideas, such as design, bicycle culture, or infrastructure, are subtopics of “bicycles.”

Add specific details

As you narrow in on one subtopic, the number of subtopics decreases:

Revised main topic: Bicycles and policies

• safety standards for bicycle design
• safety gear policies
• urban development policies and bike lanes
• road policies and cyclists

Tip: Is it narrow enough?  In our last example, notice that when you begin to narrow a large topic, the initial subtopics that come up are still broad, general ideas. The more you narrow, the more specific your descriptions become. You can use the traditional journalistic questions (Who, What, Where, When, Why) to help you move towards more specific topics:

• road building policies?
• building zone policies?
• other infrastructure?
• metropolitan areas?
• medium-sized cities?
• small cities?
• construction companies?
• planning committees?

Using these questions to target the subject matter, we might narrow the topic, bicycle lanes and urban development , even further to the following:  policies related to bike lanes in mid-sized metropolitan areas .

As the handout illustrates, deciding upon a suitably narrow essay topic is a process that may require several attempts to complete. Regardless, devoting time to this initial planning process is a wise investment since a defined essay topic will usefully guide a paper’s development.

Structuring an Essay

Essays, like letters and memos, follow an introduction, body, and conclusion structure, although these sections may also be subdivided. The sections need to be fully developed to coherently deliver an essay’s central message to readers. They also need to be proportionate to an essay’s overall length: for instance, a brief essay requires a brief introduction and conclusion, whereas an extended essay can accommodate a longer introduction and conclusion. In general, budget 10 percent of the paper’s word count for the introduction, 80 percent for the body, and 10 percent for the conclusion.

Composing an Introduction Section

An essay introduction establishes context for the reader by commencing discussion of the document’s central message, around which all the other content will coalesce, and by revealing how the essay will unfold. To be more specific, the introduction delimits the scope and purpose of the essay so that readers understand its direction, range of coverage, and intent.

The context-setting information provided at the beginning of an introduction might include definitions of key terms that will be used throughout the rest of the paper, a summation of how something works, essential background on the topic to be addressed in the piece, or articulation of circumstances pertinent to a problem—perhaps a concise discussion of historical events surrounding the topic, previous research conducted in the area, or treatment of the topic in the news. A writer has considerable leeway when deciding how to articulate context-setting information, and inventiveness in this section can help draw readers into the essay. Schall (2014, para. 7), for instance, describes how narration , storytelling in other words, can be used to stimulate reader interest in an essay. The following examples, adapted from Schall (para. 7), present the initial lines from two essay openings, one focused on the “generic nature of America’s highway exit ramp services” and the other on shape constancy in relationship to human visual perception, to demonstrate the interest that narration can inspire.

• The observation struck me slowly, a growing sense of déjà vu. I was driving the endless miles of Interstate 70 crossing Kansas when I began to notice that the exits all looked the same. → Notice how the writer uses I to communicate his/her experience.
• Our eyes often receive pictures of the world that are contrary to physical reality: a pencil in a glass of water miraculously bends and railroad tracks converge in the distance. → Notice how writer omits I but is nevertheless reflective about the subject matter.

Regardless of the flavor of context-setting information you provide in an essay, the information should help readers connect with the text’s central message. Therefore, avoid beginning an essay with an overly general statement, such as “People argue about many controversial topics,” that could apply to any number of papers. This kind of nondescript material wastes readers’ time.

An essay’s central message is delivered in its thesis statement , a sentence, sometimes more, that articulates the theme of the paper and the writer’s view on it. The thesis thus explains the paper’s controlling idea by specifying what the writer has to say about a particular topic and by clarifying what will and will not be covered. The thesis statement is typically placed at or near the end of the introduction to initiate the reader’s progression into the rest of the paper. Schall (para. 8) explains that a well-written thesis statement should be inexorably tied to the essay it accompanies, carefully constructed, and revealingly focused: “concretely announce the most important elements of your topic and suggest your fundamental approach—even point [readers] toward the paper’s conclusion if you can.”  The following two thesis statement examples, adapted from Schall (para. 9), fit this description.

• This paper reviews the problem of Pennsylvania’s dwindling landfill space, evaluates the success of recycling as a solution to this problem, and challenges the assumption that Pennsylvania will run out of landfill space by the year 2024.
• As this paper will show, the fundamental problem behind the Arab-Israeli conflict is the lack of a workable solution to the third stage of partition, which greatly hinders negotiations for peace.

Notice that each example indicates the paper’s unifying theme and the writer’s viewpoint on the matter.

Developing an effective thesis statement for an essay requires work on a writer’s part. Try using these steps, adapted from the Writing and Communication Centre, University of Waterloo (n.d.c, “Building Effective Thesis Statements”), when building a thesis statement to make the task more straightforward.

• Read the assignment directions carefully so you are clear about the expectations.
• Conduct preliminary research to gather and organize information about your topic.
• What is new about this topic?
• What is important about this topic?
• What is interesting about this topic?
• What have others missed in their discussions about this topic?
• Conduct additional research once you have narrowed your focus in order to find evidence to support your thesis. As you research, your understanding of the topic may further develop and evolve.
• Refine your thesis statement so it clearly expresses your angle or position.

As this list points out, an effective thesis statement typically develops over time and with concerted effort.

A thesis statement should fulfill the functions set out in its definition otherwise it will not guide the development of an essay. The following list, adapted from McKeever (n.d.c, paras. 12, 16, 17) and Sweetland Center for Writing, University of Michigan (2020a, para. 8), identifies markers of weak thesis statements.

• A simple observation (Example: NASA scientists regularly conduct experiments in space.) Although an observation may be true, it cannot initiate a lively and extended discussion of the multiple views surrounding a complex topic.
• A statement of fact (Example: Some people are opposed to stem cell research.) To determine whether a statement is a fact, ask if anyone could reasonably disagree with it. If everyone would agree that the statement is true, it is a fact, meaning that it is not open to interpretation or discussion.
• A broad generalization (Example: Politics requires working for the people.) It may seem that a broad thesis statement creates the possibility for numerous essay directions, but broad issues contain too many specific arguments within them, and making a broad claim leads to making a shallow argument.
• A question (Example: Why are self-service checkout machines popular in stores?) A thesis must be phrased as a statement, although you might decide to narrow the focus of an essay by devising a research question (a question that a research project seeks to answer). A thesis statement answers a research question in sentence form.
• A misleading statement (Example: This essay will prove that a person who is old enough to vote and serve in the armed forces should be allowed to drink alcohol too.) The word prove points to a fact, something that is indisputable, and a thesis cannot be a statement of fact. More troubling about the example, however, is that an essay cannot irrefutably prove something, so the statement is misleading.
• A statement that uses figurative language (Example: The runaway train of individualism must be controlled and not allowed to jump the tracks and obliterate innocent bystanders.) A thesis statement should enable a reader to clearly and immediately identify the focus of an essay. Figurative language, such as that used in the example, is wordy, vague, and quite frankly confusing, so avoid it.
• An unfocused statement (Example: I think the inconsistent penalties for drunk driving, even if enhanced, because of the impact of drinking and driving on families who lose their children, fathers, mothers, or other family members to death and/or disability, are not strict enough in the various states, allowing drunk drivers to go free although there is a high risk of offending again.) A thesis statement that contains multiple clauses and lists is confusing. Oftentimes, such statements also present details that should be discussed in body paragraphs. Remember that a focused thesis statement identifies and delimits the direction of an essay, as this revised example does: The United States needs a consistent, national law that strips drunk drivers of driving privileges for five years after their first offense. Notice that the revised example omits I think since the phrase is redundant; the writer’s view is implicit in the sentence. In general, avoid the phrases I think , I feel , and I believe since they add unnecessary words to an essay and give the appearance of uncertainty.

Prevent the thesis statement problems listed by focusing on a specific topic and articulating your view on that topic in a clear, concise, and unambiguous way. In addition, be prepared to revise the thesis statement as necessary during your essay’s development.

Depending on assignment specifications, disciplinary conventions, educational context, or authorial choice, a writer may integrate a route map , a brief outline of the specific topics the essay will cover and in what order, in the thesis statement or provide this information in a separate sentence or sentences at the end of the introduction. The order of topics in the route map should match the sequence in which they are addressed in the body of the essay; the route map thus serves as a skeleton outline of the essay by giving readers a sense of how the text will be organized.

The essay introduction structure described here takes the form of the inverted triangle presented in Figure 2, with the reader connecting with broad context-setting information before moving on to a more narrow discussion of the essay’s focus area and organizational structure provided in a thesis statement and route map.

Figure 2. Moving from general to specific information as an essay introduction proceeds

Figure 3, adapted from the Academic Writing Help Centre, Student Academic Success Service at the University of Ottawa (2016c, para. 10), shows the introduction elements at work in a sample paragraph.

Figure 3. An introduction with context-setting, a thesis statement, and a route map

If an introduction is clearly focused, comprehensibly organized, and grammatically and mechanically sound, it can inspire a reader’s interest in the remainder of the essay.

Composing a Body Section

The body of an essay expounds upon the central theme articulated in the text’s thesis statement until that theme is fully developed. The body section is divided into paragraphs, and each paragraph centers on one main point that unifies the content of the paragraph and is articulated through an explicit or implied topic sentence. A topic sentence encapsulates a paragraph’s focus, and in technical writing, explicit topic sentences typically appear at the beginnings of paragraphs to expediently deliver needed information to readers. Using this structure, everything that follows the topic sentence in a paragraph—examples, illustrations, explanations, quotations, paraphrases, summaries, reasons—supports the point made in the topic sentence. If a writer instead opts to use an implied topic sentence, he or she may discuss a source, viewpoint, question, or piece of evidence slowly in the paragraph, allowing the paragraph’s momentum to develop the text’s key takeaway. The reader is consequently responsible for inferring the paragraph’s topic sentence in this situation. Whether the topic sentence is explicit or implied, the reader should leave the paragraph with a clear understanding of its main point.

To successfully communicate a paragraph’s main point and give readers a sense of the paragraph’s direction, a topic sentence must be specific. A topic sentence that simply announces the subject matter of a paragraph—“In this paragraph, I will discuss…”—does not fit this description, as the professionals at Student Academic Success Services, Queen’s University (2018a, para. 5) explain. To devise a precise alternative, think carefully about the paragraph’s key takeaway and how that point ties in with surrounding paragraphs and ultimately links back to the essay’s thesis statement; then try to articulate the key takeaway in one focused and unifying umbrella sentence underneath which all the other points in the paragraph fall.

In the process of developing an essay’s central theme through the inclusion of focused topic sentences and relevant and substantive follow-up sentences, the body section of an essay aims to be compelling: for example, an author might try to convince readers to adopt his or her position on an issue; to take a careful look at a text and how it is constructed; to contemplate the layers of complexity surrounding an area of investigation; or, more generally, to consider the well-informed nature of the essay and its fluid delivery of information. The body section thus involves persuasion. To address an essay’s central theme in a comprehensive and fair way, a writer who aims for maximum persuasiveness will speak to the multifaceted perspectives surrounding points of discussion rather than focusing exclusively on his or her own viewpoint. The latter signals bias in an argument, a situation to avoid in academic and technical writing.

Writers may employ certain patterns of development to present information in body paragraphs so that it is logical and compelling. The following list, adapted from Student Academic Success Services, Queen’s University (2018b, paras. 12, 17-21), describes a number of these patterns.

• Description: Conveys specific details about the look, taste, smell, sound, or feel of something.
• Illustration/Example: Illustrates a general concept with specific examples or uses an example as evidence to support a point.
• Spatial: Describes how something looks in relationship to how it occupies space (e.g., inside to outside, top to bottom, front to back, or left to right).
• Comparison/Contrast: Examines two or more things to determine their similarities and differences using clearly defined criteria.
• Cause/Effect: Examines the causes that have led to certain results.
• Evaluation: Measures something by examining it in relation to a given set of criteria; may discuss the thing’s strengths and weaknesses in light of this evaluation.
• Classification: Examines something by dividing it into categories or subtypes.
• Sequence/Process: Explains how something works in sequential or step-by-step fashion.
• Narration: Tells a story in chronological order.
• Definition: Explains the distinguishing features of something.
• Order of Importance: Places the most important information in a strategic place to affect reader perception.

Writers may combine these patterns when developing body paragraphs or use them separately; assignment directions may also specify the use of a particular pattern in an essay.

Figure 4, adapted from the Academic Writing Help Centre, Student Academic Success Service at the University of Ottawa (2016a, para. 11), demonstrates elements of persuasion at work—in this case a viewpoint (claim) supported with a reason and evidence—in an argumentative body paragraph.

What do you think of the paragraph?  Apart from the argument elements identified in the paragraph, what else helps to make it persuasive?

Figure 4. A body paragraph containing a claim supported with a reason and evidence

While Figure 4 uses a quotation as evidence to support a claim, evidence in body paragraphs can take many forms: for example, summaries, paraphrases, tables, figures, equations, anecdotes, personal experiences, facts, statistics, and numerical and word field data.

Composing a Conclusion Section

A conclusion emphasizes an essay’s central message by reiterating its thesis (without repeating it word for word) and summarizing its key points. Because a conclusion brings an essay to a cohesive end, it should not discuss new information; instead, it should follow on logically from content already covered. A conclusion’s very definition—“an articulated conviction arrived at on the basis of the evidence you have presented” (Schall, 2014, para. 15)—points to its unifying function. The following conclusion sample, adapted from Schall (para. 16) and excerpted from the paper “Exercise in the Prevention and Treatment of Osteoporosis in Women,” reflects directly on the paper’s hypothesis, stated in the introduction, and presents a logical realization of the paper’s goals.

The majority of evidence presented in this paper supports the hypothesis that exercise positively affects bone mineral density in both premenopausal and postmenopausal women. Importantly, exercise has been shown to increase bone mineral density in premenopausal women even after the teenage years, and it helps preserve the bone mass achieved in the subsequent decades. Evidence also shows that exercise adds a modest amount of bone mass to the postmenopausal skeleton. As these findings demonstrate, women of all ages can benefit from regular weight-bearing exercise, an increased intake of calcium-rich foods, and—for postmenopausal women—the maintenance of adequate estrogen levels. Women of all ages can prevent osteoporosis or lessen its severity by making appropriate lifestyle choices.

If you experience a roadblock when constructing a coherent conclusion such as this, Schall (para. 14) recommends reviewing the essay’s introduction and body to revisit what the paper set out to do and how it accomplished its aims or reviewing these sections to determine the paper’s contributions to the particular research area addressed.

While focusing squarely on the essay’s central message and the document’s particular purpose, a conclusion may also discuss how the essay’s findings compare with other research in the area; emphasize the implications of the findings (what they mean and why they are important—the so what , in other words); consider the limitations of the research conducted for the essay; or make recommendations for further research. Again, these elements should link back to the essay’s central message so readers understand the context for their discussion. Here is a conclusion example, adapted from the Academic Writing Help Centre, Student Academic Success Service at the University of Ottawa (2016b, para. 7), that emphasizes the essay’s central message and summarizes its key points before underscoring the implications of the findings and proposing a solution to the issue discussed in the paper.

In the end, there is no way to deny the seriousness of the environmental threat. If the current clear-cutting practices continue, the Ungolu rainforest will be unable to support the red-tailed swallow, and it will become extinct. Without this bird, the tree-eating corkscrew beetle will have nothing to stop its spread, and it will disrupt the rainforest’s ecosystem even further. Although the inhabitants of the area request the commercialization of land and wood to encourage the economic development of Ungolu, initiatives with regard to ecotourism and biological agriculture can be pursued to ensure both the growth of the economy and the survival of the red-tailed swallow. Because of the dire environmental consequences of its extinction, it is vital that this species be preserved—and it is possible to do so with a reasonable amount of effort and resources. Indeed, the best way to encourage the inhabitants of the area to let the Ungolu rainforest recover is for northern countries to stop purchasing the products obtained from logging practices and to subsidize the local initiatives discussed in this paper, otherwise the local population will not be motivated to make a significant change. Without quick and decisive action, rainforest tracts will be eliminated, and the inhabitants of the area will be even worse off than before the introduction of logging.

The implications and call to action discussed in this conclusion coherently link back to the introduction and body sections of the essay.

Gathering Quality Evidence for an Essay

In addition to a logical structure, an essay’s effectiveness largely hinges on the quality of its evidentiary support. Evidence that is inaccurate, untrustworthy, irrelevant, insufficient, dated, or flawed in some other way is unlikely to convince a reader to adopt a writer’s perspective and may actually inspire the opposite effect. On the other hand, sound evidence can contribute to the persuasiveness of an essay and demonstrate a writer’s research ability. While the “Writing Topic Proposals” chapter of this textbook supplies tips for evaluating the quality of sources and the evidence they provide, the multipage handout in Figure 5 (adapted from McKeever, n.d.a) offers additional points to consider.

Does anything on the handout surprise you?  Why or why not?

Figure 5. A guide to evaluating information sources

You might decide to use the checklist items in Figure 5 to evaluate sources of information for your essay. Figure 6 (Webber, 2018, p. 1) presents an alternative tool: a visual scorecard for source evaluation.

Figure 6. A scorecard tool for evaluating source information

The instruments in figures 5 and 6 can help you apply consistent evaluation criteria to potential sources of evidentiary information for an essay.

Incorporating Quality Evidence into an Essay

After locating quality evidentiary support for an essay, you must incorporate it into your text in a logical and ethical way so that readers understand its presence, its origin, and how it relates to your own ideas. Quotation, paraphrase, and summary offer three means by which to integrate evidence into an essay.

Before attempting to quote, paraphrase, or summarize a source, make sure you fully understand the text’s meaning and feel confident about discussing it. If you are unclear about what the source text says, do not try to integrate its information into your essay; such confusion can damage the persuasiveness of a paper since savvy readers may detect the issue. Instead, read the text several times slowly to grasp its meaning or discuss it with your classmates and instructor before attempting to incorporate its information into an essay. Class discussions about confounding texts can oftentimes provide clarification and fruitful avenues for writing projects.

Using Quotations

When writers quote , they use the exact words from source texts, enclose those words in quotation marks, and cite and reference the sources to document the origin of information. Quotations can provide telling evidence in a paper if they are used sparingly and strategically. Conversely, their overuse can affect the flow of a piece of writing and give readers the impression that the writer cannot formulate his or her own thoughts about a text. Table 1 explains when to use and avoid quotations.

Table 1. Reasons to use and avoid quotations when writing

If you decide to use quotations in an essay, take care to integrate them cohesively.

Quotations cannot on their own provide compelling evidentiary support for an essay; a writer must consequently explain their presence and relevance to readers. In other words, a writer must contextualize a quotation so readers understand its use. The quotation sandwich offers a helpful method for working quotations into papers in a cohesive way. Using this technique, a writer introduces a quotation, provides the quotation, and comments on the quotation’s relationship to the paper. Figure 7, adapted from McKeever (n.d.b), demonstrates use of the quotation sandwich approach.

Figure 7. A quotation sandwich can contextualize source information for readers

  The sandwiching method in shown in Figure 7 can also be used with paraphrases, summaries, visuals, and lists to interweave those elements into a document so it flows together effectively.

Using a quotation from the first page of Charles Dickens’ 1859 novel A Tale of Two Cities —“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times”—textbook writers Last and Neveu (2019, pp. 236-237) explain that the seamless integration, signal phrase, and colon methods can also be used to integrate quotations into a text in a cohesive manner. The following list, adapted from Last and Neveu, explains and exemplifies these methods.

• Seamless Integration: Embed the quotation or parts of it into your sentence so that if you read the text aloud, listeners cannot distinguish the quotation from the rest of the sentence.

Example: Charles Dickens begins his 1859 novel with the paradoxical observation that the eighteenth century was both “the best of times” and “the worst of times” (p. 1).

• Signal Phrase: Use a signal phrase (author + reporting verb) to introduce the quotation, clearly indicating that the quotation originates from a specific source.

Example: Describing the eighteenth century in his 1859 novel, Charles Dickens observes, “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times” (p. 1). → Notice that a comma follows observes since the verb signals the beginning of a quotation.

• Colon: Use a colon to introduce a quotation when your own introductory words constitute an independent clause (i.e., a complete sentence); the colon emphasizes the quotation.

Example: In his 1859 novel, Charles Dickens defines the eighteenth century as a time of paradox: “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times” (p. 1).

Any of these techniques can be used in conjunction with a quotation sandwich for maximum cohesive effect.

Although a quotation extracts the exact words from a source, a writer might need to adjust the quoted material to interleave it into his or her own text so the language flows together in a concise, grammatical manner that makes sense to readers. For example, the writer might need to alter the verb tense of the quotation so it matches the tense used in the rest of the sentence or insert a clarifying comment into the quotation to help readers understand its meaning. Both of these situations call for the use of brackets (i.e., [ ]). Ellipses, three periods in a row (…), are used to show that irrelevant words have been omitted from the middle of a quotation; four periods are used when a sentence or more is omitted from the middle of a quotation. Instead of quoting full sentences, writers oftentimes integrate short phrases or parts of sentences into their texts, using ellipses in these circumstances. If a writer omits words from the beginning or ending of a quotation, the ellipses are unnecessary.

Last and Neveu (2019, p. 238) call upon the following text from Petroski (2014) to demonstrate the use of brackets and ellipses in action. The text is a long quotation (40+ words), so it begins on a new line and is indented rather than enclosed in quotation marks. When citing a long quotation such as this, place the citation information (in this case, the page number of the quotation) outside the final mark of punctuation at the end of the quotation. These are standard conventions for incorporating long quotations into a piece of writing. The examples that accompany the text are adapted from Last and Neveu (2019, p. 238).

Engineers are always striving for success, but failure is seldom far from their minds. In the case of Canadian engineers, this focus on potentially catastrophic flaws in a design is rooted in a failure that occurred over a century ago. In 1907 a bridge of enormous   proportions collapsed while still under construction in Quebec. Planners expected that when completed, the 1,800-foot main span of the cantilever bridge would set a world   record for long-span bridges of all types, many of which had come to be realized at a great price. According to one superstition, a bridge would claim one life for every  million dollars spent on it. In fact, by the time the Quebec Bridge would finally be        completed, in 1917, almost ninety construction workers would have been killed in the course of building the $25 million structure. (p. 175)

Petroski, H. (2014). To forgive design: Understanding failure . Belknap Press.

• Brackets can be used to signal a change to the verb tense in a quotation:

Petroski (2014) recounts the story of a large bridge that was constructed at the beginning of the twentieth century in Quebec, saying that “by the time [it was done], in 1917, almost ninety construction workers [were] killed in the course of building the $25 million structure” (p. 175).

• An ellipsis can be used to signal the omission of words from a quotation:

“Planners expected that when completed, the…bridge would set a world record for long-span bridges of all types,” according to Petroski (2014, p. 175).

• Brackets can be used to signal a clarifying insertion into a quotation:

“Planners expected that when completed, the…cantilever bridge [built using structures that were anchored at one end and projected horizontally at the other] would set a world record for long-span bridges of all types,” explained Petroski (2014, p. 175).

Brackets and ellipses help authors cohesively incorporate quotations into their own writing.

When source material contains a misspelling or other composition blunder, signal the error’s presence to readers in a quotation by enclosing the italicized word sic (Latin for thus ) in brackets and placing it right after the error. Here is an example of the notation used in a sentence.

According to Jones’ (2019) Best Journal review, the book is “an important contribution    to gender studies, suceeding [ sic ] where others have fallen short” (p. 2).

The notation informs the readers that the mistake appeared in the original text.

Lastly, when quoting text that already contains quotation marks, change the internal double quotation marks (“ ”) to the single variety (‘ ’) to help readers distinguish the elements. Here is an example that illustrates this use of punctuation.

In their journal article “Fish Tales: Combatting Fake Science in Popular Media,” authors Thaler and Shiffman (2015, p. 88) classify “‘bad science’ as unsound conclusions drawn from invalid premises; ‘pseudoscience’ as sound conclusions drawn from invalid premises; and ‘fake science’ as unsound conclusions drawn from invalid premises.”

Help readers understand how you have integrated quotations into your own sentences by using the standard conventions discussed herein.

Using Paraphrases

Paraphrasing is another technique that can be used to integrate evidence from sources into an essay. When paraphrasing , a writer articulates a text’s ideas using his or her own words and sentence structures and cites and references the original source. This technique has a number of benefits, as the following list explains.

• To compose a paraphrase, a writer must have a strong command of a source. Thus, inclusion of a paraphrase in an essay demonstrates that a writer has engaged actively with the source and can discuss it in an informed way using his or her own words.
• A writer can oftentimes incorporate a paraphrase into an essay in a more straightforward way than a quotation by maintaining his or her own writing style.
• If a source uses complex technical terms, a writer can translate this wording for a general audience of essay readers by articulating the ideas in a paraphrase.

Paraphrase when a text’s ideas are more important than how a source communicates them. Also bear in mind that paraphrasing and summarizing are the norm in much academic and technical writing, while quotations are used sparingly if at all.

To be certain you are using your own words and sentence structures when paraphrasing, follow these steps.

• Read the source text carefully to make sure you understand it.
• Decide which short section of text (a sentence or two or a brief paragraph) you intend to paraphrase.
• Note down key points about the text on a separate piece of paper using your own words.
• Put the source text away so you cannot see it.
• Write your own version of what the original text said using your notes.
• Leave the paraphrase alone for a while, and then revisit it to see if it can be improved.
• Check that the paraphrase expresses the overall idea of the source text in a new form.
• Enclose any unique terms borrowed from the original source in quotation marks.
• Provide an in-text citation and accompanying reference list entry for the original text.

The example below, adapted from Last and Neveu (2019, p. 239), follows the principles conveyed in the list while paraphrasing the final two sentences of the Petroski (2014) text presented earlier.

At the end of its construction, the large cantilever bridge in Quebec cost $25 million, explains Petroski (2014, p. 175), but the cost in lives far exceeded the prediction of one death for each million dollars spent. While the planners hoped that the bridge would set a global record, its enduring reputation was much grimmer.

An unacceptable paraphrase is one that simply replaces source language with synonyms. To avoid this form of plagiarism, use the steps listed here to express the meaning of a source in your own words.

Using Summaries

Summarizing , when a writer communicates a text’s central idea or theme in his or her own words while excluding details, is another technique that can be used to integrate source evidence into an essay. Although the “Reading Actively” chapter of this textbook contains detailed summary-writing guidance, Figure 8, a handout adapted from the Robert Gillespie Academic Skills Centre, University of Toronto Mississauga (n.d.), lists essential reminders for constructing a summary.

In what instances might you use summaries in essays?

Figure 8. Steps for composing a summary

The following example, adapted from Last and Neveu (2019, p. 239), follows the principles discussed herein when summarizing the Petroski (2014) text.

According to Petroski (2014, p. 175), a large bridge built in Quebec during the early part of the twentieth century claimed the lives of dozens of workers during its construction. The collapse of the bridge early in its construction represented a pivotal design failure for Canadian engineers that shaped the profession.

As the sample illustrates, a summary condenses an extended text down to its essential meaning, providing readers with an overview; a summary also supplies readers with a citation and reference for the source text.

Synthesizing Ideas for an Essay

Although this chapter has discussed quoting, paraphrasing, and summarizing as means to integrate source information into essays, before you can use these techniques to their fullest potential, you must think carefully about the points your essay sources make, how they concur or disagree with one another, and how they connect to and extend your own ideas about an essay topic. Collectively, these activities facilitate synthesis , or connecting with sources by responding to their ideas and research in a piece of writing in order to contribute your own unique insights to the area of focus. Many composition scholars liken synthesis to engaging in conversation with sources since it involves establishing how sources relate to one another and to your own thoughts about a subject.

Using Summary to Synthesize

To demonstrate synthesis in action, we will explore a scenario adapted from Excelsior Online Writing Lab (2020f). Imagine you are researching a topic. You will likely encounter a variety of sources about the subject that contain different information and points of view, and you will need to compare and evaluate this information to draw your own conclusions—a process that leads to the synthesis of new ideas. It may help, at this point, to compare synthesizing to analyzing. Whereas analysis breaks something into parts to examine how they work together, synthesis combines ideas to form new ones. Regardless, synthesizing is not the same as summarizing; summary involves concisely stating someone else’s ideas, while synthesis is a critical and creative process in which you compare or combine the ideas you have read to form new ones. Although synthesis can involve summarizing ideas from other texts in order to compare them and draw a conclusion, the result is a new idea.

To continue the scenario, we will read two passages that express different points of view about bike lanes: first, we will summarize the authors’ main ideas, and then we will compare them and draw a conclusion. The author of this first passage is in favor of bike lanes.

Bike lanes are an essential feature of modern, urban life. Indeed, many urban residents have traded their cars for bicycles. Bicycling offers many advantages to driving: bicycles do not get stuck in traffic, run out of gas, break down often (and even when they do, repairs are inexpensive), need insurance, produce pollution, or receive parking tickets. They also offer an excellent way to add exercise to a busy schedule. Many cities across the nation have encouraged bicycling to cut down on traffic, accidents, and pollution and have added bike lanes to downtown areas to provide safe and speedy thruways for bicyclists, producing a net positive result for all parties.

We can summarize this argument by pulling out some keywords: bike lanes, advantages, urban, traffic, accidents, pollution, inexpensive, safe, and exercise. Putting this information together, we can summarize the author’s argument as follows.

Placing bike lanes in urban areas is beneficial because bicycling reduces traffic, accidents, and pollution and offers an inexpensive, safe, and healthy way to travel.

The author of the second passage opposes bike lanes, as this text reveals.

Bike lanes remove valuable space from already crowded inner-city streets. Urban areas already suffer from traffic and pedestrian congestion, and such overcrowding is worsened by the introduction of legions of reckless bicyclists. Many bicyclists also ignore street signs, causing additional accidents with cars and people. Furthermore, parked bicycles clutter congested sidewalks, making many areas impassable. These problems far outweigh the benefits of bicycling. People who do not want to drive can hop on a bus or subway and gain most of the benefits of bicycling without taking up precious space on the roads.

We can use several keywords to summarize this argument: bike lanes, urban, space, crowding, accidents, congested sidewalks, problems, buses, and subways. Combining this information leads to the following summary.

Placing bike lanes in urban areas is problematic because bicycles take up valuable space, create additional crowding, cause accidents, and congest sidewalks. Bike lanes can also be replaced with better alternatives, such as buses and subways.

Having summarized the passages, we can practice synthesizing by combining the two summaries and drawing a conclusion.

• In the first passage, the author argues that placing bike lanes in urban areas is beneficial because bicycling reduces traffic, accidents, and pollution and offers an inexpensive, safe, and healthy way to travel.
• Synthesis: These opposing viewpoints demonstrate that while bike lanes encourage a healthy, safe, and low-cost way to travel in cities, they also cause problems that need to be addressed through better urban planning.

The synthesis statement fuses the two passages by combining and comparing the two summaries and then drawing a conclusion that raises a new idea about the need for better urban planning to support bicycling.

Using a Matrix Tool to Synthesize

When exploring the connections among various sources for an essay, you might also decide to use a matrix tool to create a visual representation of source relationships. When using this type of tool, a writer groups common themes, arguments, or points raised in sources in tabular fashion to facilitate synthesis. Table 2 is an example of a synthesis matrix.

Table 2. A matrix tool to facilitate synthesis

When using a matrix tool, it is vital to consider your own thoughts regarding groupings in order to encourage synthesis, as the right column of the figure indicates.

Signaling Synthesis in an Essay

When synthesizing ideas in an essay, you can help readers understand how they connect by using sentence structures that signal relationships. Bruce and Gagich (2018, p. 93-94) explain that these sentence structures oftentimes point to a writer’s agreement or disagreement with sources, although you can also use them to discuss patterns of thinking, errors in logic, omission of points, or other matters that add to the research conversation. The textbook authors provide examples of sentence structure templates (adapted below) that can be used to establish synthesis.

• Source A asserts…Source B agrees when stating…
• According to sources A and B…
• The combined conclusions of sources A and B seem to indicate that…
• The evidence shows that…
• Source A is correct that…However, source B’s point that…is also valid.
• Source A makes a convincing case when she argues…
• I agree with source A’s conclusion that…
• Source A asserts that…, while source B offers a different perspective by…
• Sources A and B disagree regarding…
• Contrary to what source A has argued, my view is that…
• I argue that X is the best option even though source B proposes a different solution.
• I would like to offer several objections to the opinions expressed by source A…
• While source B makes a strong argument, I would disagree with…because…
• Instead of focusing on…as source A does, source B emphasizes…
• While most of the experts on X see…as the primary cause of…, only source A acknowledges that there may be other…causes.
• When I began researching topic X, I expected to find…To my surprise, neither source A, B, nor C address this reason, which leads me to believe that…
• Because source A is an expert in the field of X, most others writing about X accede to A’s authority, but a closer examination of A reveals an important omission about X.

These templates demonstrate how you can weave together source information with your own thoughts to create new ideas about a topic.

Although synthesis is critical to developing an effective essay, you will also regularly call upon the skill when producing other types of writing assignments as well.

Formatting an Essay

As with any other type of document you write, design an essay with the principle of consistency in mind so that readers can concentrate on its content rather than on formatting variations. When producing an essay, use double spacing throughout, one-inch margins, and indentation to signal the beginnings of new paragraphs, unless you are told otherwise. This list, adapted from Lambert (2019, paras. 4-8), indicates other ways to stay consistent with design.

• Make sure your font and type size is the same throughout the entire paper. If you opt to use different fonts or type sizes for headings and body text, employ this design decision consistently.
• Use the same style bullet points throughout lists in the paper. Remember that numbers and letters indicate rank or sequence, whereas bullets do not.
• Design lists in a consistent manner. In general, capitalize the first letter of the first word in a list, and use punctuation at the end of full-sentence list items.
• Format all same-level headings the same way, using uniform design choices (bold or italic lettering), standardized positioning (center or left alignment), and a consistent pattern of capitalization.
• Apply the design principle of repetition when implementing color. If you decide to employ color in visuals, aim to use the same or a similar color in more than one visual.

Keep in mind that certain formatting conventions (e.g., heading design and placement) are associated with documentation styles. The “Reporting Research Outcomes” chapter of this textbook provides specific guidance on formatting documents using APA (American Psychological Association) style.

Developing an Essay Title

An essay’s title offers insight into the accompanying text’s direction, purpose, and content, so devise a precise title that is particular to the paper you are developing and is clearly written with an envisioned audience in mind. Implementing this piece of advice may mean fully drafting the essay before composing its title.

To elaborate on the previous paragraph while adapting advice provided by the Sweetland Center for Writing, University of Michigan (2020b, paras. 5, 11-16), readers typically find titles like “Essay One,” “Society and its Many Problems,” “A Picture is Worth a Thousand Words,” and “Technical Writing Assignment Two” unhelpful. These types of titles are simply too general to provide any needed context. To avoid such titles, think carefully about the essay’s thesis, research, and implications, and identify keywords that succinctly encapsulate these. Imagine, for instance, that you are writing an essay about animal behavior. You have a particular species to study, conduct relevant research, and have conclusions to offer. Here is your first attempt at an essay title: “Monkey Behavior.”  This title says nothing about the kind of monkey or its distinctive behavior and does little to attract or inform the reader. Your second attempt is a little better: “The Effects of Sugar on Monkey Behavior.”  This title is clearer and somewhat amusing. Regardless, it still does not offer many specifics or include key terms from the paper. Readers can already conjecture that sugar would have some effect on monkey behavior, so the title needs to be markedly more precise. Here is a revised version: “Sugar Stimulates Intensity of Tail-Twitch Social Behavior in Panamanian Monkeys.”  This title contains specific terms, includes a clear location, and provides an explicit claim—information the reader can use to immediately identify the paper’s focus.

Developing Essay Headings

Create specific and informative headings for essay sections since headings signal a paper’s organization and scope and help readers follow the text’s development. So, rather than using the vague Body as a heading, divide the body section of the paper into segments organized by the main points covered in paragraphs, which should all relate back to the paper’s thesis statement, and give the sections explanatory headings. By reading an essay’s explanatory headings, the reader should be able to discern the general progression of the piece and what the essay sections cover.

Revising an Essay

Like any quality piece of extended writing, an essay requires time and effort to prepare, and revision is a key step in the composition process. Revision is most effectively completed in stages: a writer begins the process by looking for big-picture issues that might affect an essay’s coherent construction, then considers mid-level issues that can impact paragraph development, and finishes by checking for sentence-level errors that can influence reader understanding. The following list provides guiding questions that can be used during each stage of revision.

• Do you have a clear thesis? Do you know what idea or perspective you want the audience to understand upon reading your essay?
• Is your essay well organized?
• Is each paragraph a building block in your essay: does it explain or support your thesis?
• Does the essay need a different shape? Do parts need to be moved?
• Do you fully explain and illustrate the main ideas of your paper?
• Does your introduction grab the reader’s interest?
• Does your conclusion leave the reader with an understanding of your point of view?
• What is your paper’s strength? What is its weakness?
• Does each paragraph contain solid and specific information, vivid description, or examples that illustrate the point you are making?
• Can you add other facts, quotations, paraphrases, examples, or descriptions to more clearly illustrate or provide evidence for the points you are making?
• Can you delete any sentences, words, descriptions, or information because they may confuse or tire the reader?
• Are your paragraphs in the right order?
• Does each paragraph explore one main idea?
• Do you use clear transitions so the reader can follow your thinking?
• Do any of your paragraphs contain redundancies that can be deleted?
• Have you been consistent in your use of tense?
• Do your pronouns agree with their antecedents (referents)?
• Have you accurately and effectively used punctuation?
• Do you rely on strong verbs and nouns to enhance descriptions and build clear sentences?
• Are your words as accurate as possible?
• Do you define any technical or unusual terms that readers may not know?
• Can you delete any extra words from your sentences?
• Have you avoided clichés and slang?
• Do you vary your sentence structures?
• Have you accurately presented facts?
• If you are writing an academic essay, have you tried to be objective in your evidence and tone?
• If you are writing a personal essay, have you used a lively narrative voice?
• Have you spellchecked your paper?
• Have you ethically incorporated source material by effectively quoting, paraphrasing, or summarizing it?
• Have you consistently cited and referenced source information using a standard documentation style?

Although a draft paper represents an important milestone in a writing project, a draft typically needs considerable revision and refinement before it is ready for submission. Figure 9, an essay extract reproduced courtesy of Excelsior Online Writing Lab (2020d, “Rough Draft Example”), illustrates this point.

Figure 9. The revising process at work in an essay extract

Think of revising as a recursive activity, meaning that you may proceed through the previously listed revision stages multiple times during an essay’s development.

In addition to revising a paper in stages using the prompt questions listed, you may also have the opportunity to revise an essay based on peer feedback. Peer review sessions offer valuable chances to find out what others think of your writing and what suggestions they can contribute to help you during revision; the sessions also give you the chance to supply constructive feedback on your classmates’ writing—a vital skill you will need in the workplace. When supplying constructive criticism, identify what needs to be changed in a paper, why it needs to be changed, and how it can be changed. Alternatively, highlight what works well in a paper, why this is the case, and how the positive aspect affects you, the reader. Figure 10, a multipage handout produced by the Writing and Communication Centre, University of Waterloo (n.d.b), offers further peer review advice and a feedback template that can be used during peer review sessions to help ensure they are maximally productive.

Have you ever participated in a peer revision session before?  What did you think of it?  What do you think of the peer review advice presented in the handout?

Peer Review Theory and Practice

Peer review is one of a number of revision and proofreading strategies available to you. While there are many ways to structure peer review sessions, at its core, this technique involves soliciting feedback on one or more aspects of your writing from classmates or colleagues.

Peer Review: Purpose and Scope

While peer review has the obvious benefit of getting feedback on your writing, it also has benefits for the person doing the reviewing:

• We become better writers by being diligent peer reviewers
• We learn good writing habits by writing often and by reading the writing of others
• Giving feedback requires us to think carefully – not only about what we think about someone’s writing, but also about how writing is constructed and why we are making specific suggestions.

It is up to individual peer review groups to determine what aspects of writing a given session (or series of sessions) will look at. Broadly speaking, the following aspects of writing are the ones that you could potentially focus on:

• Content : arguments, analysis, logic, evidence
• Structure : organization, transitions, connections
• Style : tone, word choice, formality
• Mechanics : punctuation, sentence structure, spelling

General Tip :Avoid the urge to focus initially or primarily on mechanics. The revision and proofreading process will be more effective when you focus on higher-order concerns (content and structure) first and lower-order concerns (style and mechanics) second. See our handouts on revision and proofreading for more strategies that you can use.

Done correctly, the peer review process is a social, productive, and engaging way of participating in your discipline’s community of practice. However, though some instructors or supervisors will encourage their students to work together in a peer review process, others may require that projects be completed independently. In order to avoid any issues around academic integrity , make sure to consult with your instructor or supervisor before engaging in peer review.

Peer Review: Spaces

There are lots of spaces available for conducting peer review, including the following:

Face-to-Face

• Coffee shop
• Someone’s home
• Google Hangouts
• Google Docs

Peer Review: Practice

Steps in peer review.

• Write notes for your reviewer on the peer review sheet and exchange papers. If you are not using a peer review sheet, discuss the specific questions or concerns that you’d like your reviewer to pay attention to.
• Read actively and critically . Make notes in the margins of the paper or in the track changes feature if using Word. If using a review sheet, make general notes there, too.
• Return the paper (and the review sheet, if you used one) to the original writer; discuss the feedback and create an action plan for revision and proofreading.

Sample Peer Review Worksheet

Feel free to adapt the templates of these peer review worksheets to suit your needs Printable version of Peer Review Worksheet  (PDF) Fillable Peer Review Marking form (PDF)

Peer Review Marking Sheet

Name of Writer:

Name of Reviewer:

Notes from the writer to the reviewer:

Aspect of Writing Being Reviewed: Content / Structure / Style / Mechanics

Additional comments on writing :

Post-Review Discussion

Action Plan: How will you (the writer) incorporate the suggestions of your reviewer into your edits? What steps will you take during the editing process? Be specific:

  Figure 10. Peer review guidance and a feedback template

  Notice that the final procedure on the handout asks you to specify how you will use peer comments to revise your paper, a crucial step when working with feedback.

Drawing the Chapter to a Close

Take the advice in this chapter into account when preparing an essay to persuasively communicate with readers.

Activity A: Producing a Reverse Outline and Answering Questions about an Essay

This chapter discusses revising in stages and peer reviewing as means to facilitate the revision process. A reverse outline offers another technique that can be used to revise an essay, as the following handout, adapted from Student Academic Success Services, Queen’s University (2018c), describes.

Reverse Outline

Practice using the reverse outline technique with the sample proposal essay provided on upcoming pages (Hanna, 2020, as cited in Excelsior Online Writing Lab, 2020e, “Sample Essay”). The essay argues for streamlining the recycling infrastructure on a college campus to encourage recycling.

Sample Essay

After reading the proposal essay, also answer the following questions about it. Be prepared to share your answers in class.

• In what way does the author create a narrowly defined focus for the essay?
• Does the author provide sufficient coverage of her topic in the paper? How?
• Identify the introduction, body, and conclusion sections of the essay. Are they logically structured and easy to follow? What makes them so?
• A proposal aims to persuade readers. What does the author do to try to persuade you in her essay?
• What do you think about the evidence the writer uses? For instance, is it accurate, trustworthy, relevant, sufficient, and timely?
• How does the writer incorporate source evidence into the essay? Could her technique be improved in any way?  If so, how?
• Where do you detect synthesis in the essay?
• What do you think of the essay’s formatting? Could it be improved in some way?
• Do you think the writer has put sufficient effort into revision? What makes you think so?
• Imagine you are giving constructive criticism to the author during a peer review session. Identify one thing that needs to be changed in the paper, why it needs to be changed, and how it can be changed. In addition, name one thing that works well in the paper, why this is the case, and how the positive aspect affects you, the reader.

  Activity B: Reading and Answering Questions about an Essay Focused on Source Credibility

Read Warrington et al.’s (2020) essay entitled “Assessing Source Credibility for Crafting a Well-Informed Argument” located at https://wac.colostate.edu/docs/books/writingspaces3/warrington.pdf . To reflect on the essay and its relevance to your own academic work, answer the five questions starting on page 202 of the text. Be prepared to talk about your answers in class.

Activity C: Applying the Ideas Discussed in the Essay to a Text

Working with a group of classmates, apply the credibility questions Warrington et al. discuss in their essay to the journal article “Fish Tales: Combatting Fake Science in Popular Media” (Thaler & Shiffman, 2015), which is available at https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0964569115000903 . Afterwards, share your group’s determination about the article’s credibility with the whole class during a brief informal presentation. This activity is adapted from Warrington et al. (2020, p. 203).

Academic Writing Help Centre, Student Academic Success Service, University of Ottawa. (2016a). Body . License: CC-BY 4.0 . https://sass.uottawa.ca/sites/sass.uottawa.ca/files/awhc-body.pdf

Academic Writing Help Centre, Student Academic Success Service, University of Ottawa. (2016b). Conclusion . License: CC-BY 4.0 . https://sass.uottawa.ca/sites/sass.uottawa.ca/files/awhc-conclusion.pdf

Academic Writing Help Centre, Student Academic Success Service, University of Ottawa. (2016c). Introduction .  License: CC-BY 4.0 .   https://sass.uottawa.ca/sites/sass.uottawa.ca/files/awhc-introduction.pdf

Bruce, Y., & Gagich, M. (2018). Synthesizing in your writing . In M. Gagich, E. Zickel, A. Lloyd, C. Morgan, J. Lanning, R. Mustafa, S.M. Lacy, W. Breeze, & Y. Bruce , In practice: A guide to rhetoric, genre, and success in first-year writing (pp. 93-94). MSL Academic Endeavors.   License: CC-BY-NC-SA 4.0.  https://pressbooks.ulib.csuohio.edu/csu-fyw-rhetoric/

Excelsior Online Writing Lab. (2020a). Revising stage 1: Seeing the big picture . License: CC-BY 4.0 . https://owl.excelsior.edu/writing-process/revising-and-editing/revising-and-editing-revising-stage-1/

Excelsior Online Writing Lab. (2020b). Revising stage 2: Mid-view . License: CC-BY 4.0 . https://owl.excelsior.edu/writing-process/revising-and-editing/revising-and-editing-revising-stage-2/

Excelsior Online Writing Lab. (2020c). Revising stage 3: Editing up close . License: CC-BY 4.0 . https://owl.excelsior.edu/writing-process/revising-and-editing/revising-and-editing-revising-stage-3/

Excelsior Online Writing Lab. (2020d). Rough drafts . License: CC-BY 4.0 .   https://owl.excelsior.edu/writing-process/essay-writing/essay-writing-rough-drafts/

Excelsior Online Writing Lab. (2020e). Sample proposal assignment . License: CC-BY 4.0 . https://owl.excelsior.edu/argument-and-critical-thinking/argumentative-purposes/argumentative-purposes-sample-proposal-argument/

Excelsior Online Writing Lab. (2020f). Synthesizing what you read [Video transcript]. License: CC-BY 4.0.   https://owl.excelsior.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2017/02/SynthesizingTranscript2019.pdf

George Mason University Writing Center. (2017). Reducing informality in academic writing .  https://writingcenter.gmu.edu/guides/reducing-informality-in-academic-writing

Lambert, R. (2019). Writing with consistency . Colorado School of Mines Writing Center. License: CC-BY-NC 4.0 .  https://www.mines.edu/otcc/wp-content/uploads/sites/303/2019/12/OTCCConsistencyLesson.pdf

Last, S., & Neveu, C. (2019). Appendix C: Integrating source evidence into your writing. In S.    Last, Technical writing essentials: Introduction to professional communications in the technical fields (pp. 235-242). University of Victoria. License: CC-BY 4.0 .  https://pressbooks.bccampus.ca/technicalwriting/

McKeever, R. (n.d.a). Post-truth: Evaluating sources . Yuba College Writing and Language Development Center. License: CC-BY-NC 4.0.  https://yc.yccd.edu/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/EvalSourcesPostTruthAccessibleMarch2019.pdf

McKeever, R. (n.d.b). The quote “sandwich.” Yuba College Writing and Language Development Center. License: CC-BY-NC 4.0.  https://yc.yccd.edu/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/QuoteSandwich.pdf

McKeever, R. (n.d.c). Thesis statements . Yuba College Writing and Language Development Center.  License: CC-BY-NC 4.0.  https://yc.yccd.edu/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/ThesisStatementAccessibleFebruary2020.pdf

Robert Gillespie Academic Skills Centre, University of Toronto Mississauga. (n.d.). Six effective tips to write a summary . License: CC-BY-NC-SA 4.0 . https://www.utm.utoronto.ca/asc/sites/files/asc/public/shared/pdf/tip_sheets_writing/Summary_6Tips_web_v1.pdf

Schall, J. (2014). Essays and term papers: Effective technical writing in the information age . Penn State College of Earth and Mineral Sciences. License: CC-BY-NC-SA 3.0 .  https://www.e-education.psu.edu/styleforstudents/c6_p13.html

Student Academic Success Services, Queen’s University. (2018a). Developing the “what”: Effective topic sentences . License: CC-BY-NC-SA 2.5 .  https://sass.queensu.ca/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/Developing-a-Topic-Sentence.pdf

Student Academic Success Services, Queen’s University. (2018b). Organizing the body of an essay . License: CC-BY-NC-SA 2.5 .  https://sass.queensu.ca/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/Process-Essay-Body-Organization.pdf

Student Academic Success Services, Queen’s University. (2018c). The reverse outline . License: CC-BY-NC-SA 2.5 .  https://sass.queensu.ca/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/The-Reverse-Outline.pdf

Sweetland Center for Writing, University of Michigan. (2020a). How can I create a strong thesis . License: CC-BY-NC-SA. https://lsa.umich.edu/sweetland/undergraduates/writing-guides/how-can-i-create-a-stronger-thesis.html

Sweetland Center for Writing, University of Michigan. (2020b). How do I write a great title for my academic essay? License: CC-BY-NC-SA.   https://lsa.umich.edu/sweetland/undergraduates/writing-guides/how-do-i-write-a-great-title-.html

Thaler, A.D., & Shiffman, D. (2015). Fish tales: Combating fake science in popular media. Ocean & Coastal Management, 115 , 88-91. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ocecoaman.2015.04.005

Warrington, K., Kovalyova, N., & King, C. (2020). Assessing source credibility for crafting a well-informed argument. In D. Driscoll, M. Stewart, & M. Vetter (Eds.), Writing spaces: Readings on writing (Vol. 3, pp. 189-203). Parlor Press. License: CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0 .  https://wac.colostate.edu/docs/books/writingspaces3/warrington.pdf

Webber, N.R. (2018). Activity: Source evaluation scorecard. Information Literacy, 19 . License: CC-BY 4.0 .  https://digscholarship.unco.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1018&context=infolit

Writing and Communication Centre, University of Waterloo. (n.d.a). Develop and narrow a topic . License: CC-BY-SA 4.0 . https://uwaterloo.ca/writing-and-communication-centre/sites/ca.writing-and-communication-centre/files/uploads/files/narrow_your_topic.pdf

Writing and Communication Centre, University of Waterloo. (n.d.b). Peer review: Theory and practice . License: CC-BY-SA 4.0 . https://uwaterloo.ca/writing-and-communication-centre/sites/ca.writing-and-communication-centre/files/uploads/files/peer_review.pdf

Writing and Communication Centre, University of Waterloo. (n.d.c). Thesis statements . License: CC-BY-SA 4.0 . https://uwaterloo.ca/writing-and-communication-centre/sites/ca.writing-and-communication-centre/files/uploads/files/thesis_statements.pdf

Mindful Technical Writing Copyright © 2020 by Dawn Atkinson is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License , except where otherwise noted.

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Guidelines for Writing a Technical Essay

Most students write technical essays as part of academic activity. Today we are going to tell you about the process of writing this type of essay. We offer you a step-by-step guide to working on a technical text, where we will discuss style, content, writing, and collecting material. If you follow the guidelines given in the article, you will get a solid foundation for creating an excellent technical essay and not buy college essays online.

How a Technical Essay Differs from Others

Just like any other academic paper, a technical essay consists of the same elements – an introduction, the main body, and a conclusion. The main difference is in the content. A technical essay is devoted to explaining a particular scientific or technical phenomenon, displays how to perform a precise technical task, or discusses a particular method or ways of doing something.

As a rule, these are essays on such subjects as physics, chemistry, computer science, mathematics, biology, and other related disciplines. The topic of an essay is often in the form of a question that you must answer or a statement that you have to discuss. In both cases, the process of writing an essay is the same.

Choose the Subject

Before you start writing your technical essay, read the requirements and the assignment for the essay carefully. This will give you a better understanding of what you should write about, identify the key ideas you need to reveal, and it will help you structure your thesis statement in the essay. Choosing a good research topic will give you more flexibility when writing your essay.

When selecting a topic, make sure that you can produce an in-depth, detailed essay. Before approving it with your instructor, do research and make sure that you have enough material available for high-quality work. Remember that a technical essay should have a minimum of 15-20 references. If you can’t decide, you can always ask your teacher for a piece of advice.

Your technical essay may have a perfect structure and meet all the standards of style and layout, but the paper’s content is still of the most significant importance. That’s why it is essential to carry out a high-quality collection of material in order to show the reader your understanding of the topic. You should not just list the information found but also give your assessment and analysis to form your opinion and conclusions.

When collecting the material, you should focus on the most crucial, in your opinion, points and discuss and analyze them in the most detail. All other more obvious items should be mentioned briefly. When consulting the reference literature, make sure that you use references that you can reasonably trust. In other words, you should rely mainly on conference papers, scholarly journal articles, and peer-reviewed books.

Try to avoid articles from Wikipedia, as they can be written by almost anyone and may simply reflect the authors’ opinions (and biases).

Making a plan and structure is an important element while working on a technical essay. Planning can actually help you get homework done faster . When writing a technical essay, you should start with an eye-catching title describing the issue you are looking at or the method.

You should follow with an abstract section in which you describe in detail the topic of study, the research process, and your conclusion. All paragraphs should be brief, consisting of just a few sentences. Divide your entire paper into components and briefly describe what you will write in each of them. Once you have a clear plan, you can begin to fill it with information, your thoughts, and conclusions.

All good essays should cite existing literature relevant to the topic of the essay. The formatting of the citation depends on the style used at your institution. Therefore, it is crucial to clarify this aspect before you take up your work.

Conclusions

A technical essay is a mini version of an academic paper. Working on such an essay takes students more time – about one day for each section. Moreover, you will need time to collect and study the materials; then, you will need to organize them and start writing the paper. Moreover, after writing, you need to review and proofread it and make sure it corresponds to the required format.

How Academic Writing Differs from Other Forms of Writing

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Written by  Scribendi

Have you ever wondered how academic writing stacks up against different styles of writing? If you have, then you're in good company, as many curious minds have pondered that same distinction. Let's get to it!

Formal Language versus Informal Language

Academic writing should use formal language that minimizes the use of contractions and colloquialisms and avoids slang terminology whenever possible. Casual language should only be used for emphasis.

Further, academic writing generally does not employ first person pronouns like "I" or "we," but different styles of writing do offer varying degrees of flexibility when it comes to the use of language, with a diverse range of informal elements sanctioned among different styles of writing.  

Check out the image below to further explore the differences between textspeak, informal language, and formal language!

Structure and Form

Style guides like the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association (APA) and the Chicago Manual of Style are quintessential resources for scholars engaging in academic writing, with different style guides used for different fields of academia. These style guides standardize how references should be presented and how a document should be formatted, considering things like the margins, headings, typeface, and a myriad of other elements; some guides even prescribe the kind of language to be used for various circumstances encountered most frequently within the field.

All forms of academic writing will employ a structure that should allow the information presented to flow logically from one section to the next, regardless of the segments or formatting details used according to different styles of writing. For example, a scientific research article will typically include sections for the abstract, introduction, methods, analysis, results, and conclusions, whereas a paper written for the humanities will use a drastically different framework that can vary between artistic disciplines.

Different styles of writing contain various essential structural elements. This means that some styles, such as creative writing, grant significantly more freedom to the author than other styles, such as the style used for writing engineering documents.

The tone used to communicate ideas will significantly affect how readers interpret those ideas. It's vital that different styles of writing adopt different tones appropriate for the respective target audiences.

It's especially crucial within academic writing to eliminate all personal biases, both explicit and implicit. Academic writing must display objectivity. It's often best that academic writing avoids rhetorical tactics, like sweeping generalizations and emotional arguments, as this will ensure the highest degree of objectivity expected from academic writing.

At its core, academic writing should be clear, succinct, and objective; the exact criteria for these qualities differ among different styles of writing, but without these elements, the credibility of academic writing is often shaky.

The tone, language, and formality of academic writing will all depend on the target audience . As such, the target audience is a crucial consideration for effective academic writing.

In an academic setting, your audience could comprise researchers, professors, and/or experts in the field, but a casual piece might target your family and friends. The way we speak to figures of authority is very different from how we speak to siblings or friends, and communicating with these different groups when writing is no different; the word choices used in academic writing should suit the audience just as much as a person's vocabulary and gestures might shift for face-to-face communication according to these different groups.

For example, when the public is the intended audience for a piece of academic writing, it's probably a good idea to use simple language to explain any tricky terms used in the document. You might even consider substituting the academic jargon for another phrase more easily understood by the masses. This is true for all different styles of writing. The audience needs to understand what has been written!

If you're uncertain whether a particular term might be appropriate for your audience, try consulting a friend who is unfamiliar with the topic. This should clearly indicate how easy it might be for the average person to understand the concept.

The following piece of advice applies to all different styles of writing: leave time to edit! Regardless of the document, your work should be entirely free from errors. Proofreading for things like grammatical mistakes and punctuation errors and editing for elements such as the word choices and sentence structures will ensure that the writing is cohesive and clear. Further revision will ensure that unsightly grammatical errors and embarrassing typos never appear before the unforgiving public eye.

Have a peek at the image below to review the key aspects of academic writing (you can even download the image for reference). Once these elements have been nailed, you will have officially become a master of academic writing.

Image source: AboutImages/elements.envato.com

Make Sure Your Academic Writing Follows Conventions

Hire an expert academic editor , or get a free sample, about the author.

Scribendi’s in-house editors work with writers from all over the globe to perfect their writing. They know that no piece of writing is complete without a professional edit, and they love to see a good piece of writing turn into a great one after the editing process. Scribendi’s in-house editors are unrivaled in both experience and education, having collectively edited millions of words and obtained nearly 20 degrees collectively. They love consuming caffeinated beverages, reading books of various genres, and relaxing in quiet, dimly lit spaces.

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Technical Writing vs. Academic Writing: What’s the Difference?

Technical writing and academic writing are different from each other, and a student needs to know what sets them apart. With technical writing, the content of this nature highlights lucid and detailed information regarding a particular service or product.

The things that a student should talk about should be straight to the point, factual, and nothing should be made up. The way that goals should be accomplished should take center stage when it comes to this content, and students should avoid giving their point of view on a specific matter.

When it comes to academic writing, this is content that has everything to do with proving theories or opinions in different ways while sticking to one subject Even though its main goal is to prove a point, most of the information that goes into it is based on academic research conducted by a student or an academic writing service with professional essay writers.

Major differences between technical writing and academic writing

1.     different target audiences.

People all across the world have different tastes in things like movies and music, it is all about preference. The same logic also applies when it comes to written content, where some people will enjoy reading academic pieces while some will prefer technical pieces.

This point above is very obvious and isn’t surprising because they are different forms of writing and will cater to different audiences. Academic writing is more catered to people who are in school, but some pieces written can be used by working professionals in different fields.

Technical writing on the other hand is for people who use a particular product or service. In other words, this content is for people who hold positions like inspectors, management, investors, and more.

2.     Different career choices

The second notable difference between academic writing and technical writing is the career path that one takes. Just like the point above, preference also plays a very important role in the direction a student or a professional takes in terms of their career, depending on the content they like to read.

Academic writing services say if a student chooses technical writing as a career choice, they will be able to land jobs in the manufacturing, IT, and pharmaceutical industries just to name a few. Many companies across the globe are looking for amazing technical writers who can talk about their devices and technological methods.

Academic writing on the other hand requires a student to be very versatile because they need to write dissertations, essays, reports, proposals, research papers, and more. A career in this form of writing means a student has to produce content for the papers mentioned above.

3.     Different end goals

Both academic writing and technical writing try to accomplish something different according to online writing services. It would not make any sense to anyone if the two different writing styles achieved the same thing or had the same end goal.

For instance, academic writing is where a student tries to present certain viewpoints on a subject. The papers produced show the knowledge a student has as well as the results of research conducted.

Technical writing on the other hand illustrates how a service or product is used. It is very informative and these are documents that show manufacturer instructions and how tasks are performed. The only thing that a technical writer has in common with academic writing is they both have jargon.

Even though using jargon is perfectly acceptable, it is important for the people writing to use the correct ones at all times because using the wrong one can lead to their message being misinterpreted or lost in translation. If any new words are used in a particular piece that the writer might think the audience might not be aware of, they can define them in the footnotes.

4.     Different expressions of gathered information

Both academic writing and technical writing will have different ways to express the information that has been researched. The content produced will be completely different from each other, and students need to know the difference in approach.

When someone is writing a technical paper, they are not allowed to give their viewpoints, while in academic writing the case is different. Students can include their viewpoints and theories, allowing for more freedom of expression. They will not get penalized or deducted marks for this.

Technical writing is all about providing detailed information about a service or a product to readers. On top of that, academic writing will have certain information on a particular field of study, while technical writing is all about straightforward content that is backed up by facts.

When backing up the content with facts, the writer needs to make sure that the information is not stolen from other sources and presented differently. This is known as plagiarism and in the writing world, this is a serious offense that can make a writer lose their credibility and have a bad reputation, which is the last thing they need. Content produced has to be 100% original at all times to avoid getting into problems.

5.     Different sets of knowledge

The other area where academic writing and technical writing differ is when it comes to knowledge. According to many paper writing services, they say that people who are involved in academic writing have what is known as learner’s knowledge.

People who focus on technical writing have what is known as expert knowledge because these are people with so many years of experience under their belt in a specific field. It is also worth pointing out that in academic writing, the knowledge of a sordid topic is smaller than the tutor who will be marking the paper.

Speaking of technical writing, professional writing services say the knowledge is larger than the person who will be reading it. Overall, the main goal of academic writing is to get the paper topic done, while technical writing is all about demonstrating that the writer knows the topic very well.

6.     Use of graphics

When college or university students are writing an academic paper, they can use numbers and charts to get their point across. In a technical paper, on the other hand, numbers, and charts are used to support the conclusion made.

Final thoughts

From the points above, it is clear to see that the writing style a student or paper writing service goes for depends on the target audience. Knowing the intended audience is the first thing a student must do before they begin writing any of the two types of writing styles. Once they know what their audience is, they can begin piecing the content together because using the wrong style for the wrong audience can lead to confusion and messages being lost in translation.

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• Jun 9, 2023

The Difference Between Technical Writing and Other Types of Writing

Writing is a broad field with many different styles and genres, each with its own rules and conventions. One of these styles is technical writing , a specialized form of writing that is particularly important in the tech industry. In this blog post, we'll explore the differences between technical writing and other types of writing, and how Vaagmee Tech's Technical Writing Online Course can help you master this unique form of writing.

Understanding Technical Writing

Technical writing is a form of writing that communicates complex technical information in a clear, concise, and structured manner. It's used to create a variety of documents, including user manuals, developer documentation, how-to guides, and more.

How Does Technical Writing Differ from Other Types of Writing?

The primary purpose of technical writing is to inform and instruct. It aims to communicate complex technical information in a way that is easy to understand and apply. This is different from other types of writing, such as creative writing, which aims to entertain, or persuasive writing, which aims to convince.

Technical writing is typically aimed at a specific audience with a specific need for information. This could be users who need to understand how to use a product, or developers who need to understand how a piece of software works. Other types of writing, such as fiction or journalism, are often aimed at a more general audience.

Style and Tone

Technical writing is characterized by its clear, concise, and objective style. It avoids jargon and complex language, and it focuses on providing accurate and useful information. This is different from other types of writing, which may use more elaborate language, express personal opinions, or aim to evoke emotional responses.

Technical documents are usually highly structured, with clear headings, subheadings, and bullet points to make the information easy to navigate and understand. Other types of writing, such as novels or essays, may have a more flexible structure.

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Business Writing vs. Academic Writing: What’s the Difference?

Kat Boogaard

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Regardless of particular style or format, written information has the same goal: to present information to an audience in a clear way. 

So, that must mean good writing is good writing, right?

Not exactly. When you compare business writing to academic writing, for example, there are actually some significant differences that you should be aware of.

Familiarizing yourself with what separates these two distinct writing styles will help you write in a way that’s the most effective for your intended purpose and audience. 

Think about it this way: You wouldn’t give a technical manual to a child and call it a children’s book. The same holds true for business and academic writing—there are key differences in style and structure.

So, what exactly makes business writing different from academic writing? Well, roll up your sleeves, because we’re diving into some of those key differentiators below. 

What is business writing?

There’s a lot of writing that happens in the business world. But, if you think this means you need to be a skilled author capable of stringing together eloquent prose and flowery language, think again.

As this fact sheet from the University of Oregon explains, business writing is transactional. It describes what actions need to be taken to solve problems, achieve company goals, and so on.

From reports to emails to press releases, business writing comes in many shapes and sizes. The recipients of business writing also run the gamut—from board members to colleagues to customers to shareholders.

Because of that, there are tons of smaller details that separate business writing from academic writing. But, the overarching one you should remember is the purpose: Business writing is intended to direct action. 

Want to learn even more about business writing? Check out our business writing course !

What is academic writing?

So, what about academic writing? Take a minute to think about the various writing projects—like research papers and book reports—that you needed to complete during your schooling. You’ll quickly realize that the intention of academic writing is far different from business writing.

Rather than educating and informing others, the goal of academic writing is for students to educate themselves. They write to learn as well as to showcase what they’ve learned—and often earn a grade for doing so.

Some academic writing is then utilized to inform others (like a thesis, research paper, or dissertation). However, the original purpose of that writing work was to have the author learn something through the writing process.

In most cases, students write these academic pieces for one particular audience member: their professor or instructor.  

Business writing vs. academic writing: how they differ

Obviously, the purposes behind business writing and academic writing are quite different. But what about those other details that we mentioned earlier? 

Let’s dig into the numerous other differences that come up when you compare business writing to academic writing. 

1. Tone and style

While both styles of writing can be somewhat formal from time to time, academic writing is typically much more so and is written from a third person perspective . Students often receive a grade on their academic writing, so you can bet there isn’t slang or jargon of any type. 

However, because business writing is more oriented toward action, it leans less on long sentences and a complex vocabulary and instead focuses on short and clear sentences (and frequently, bullet points)—making it seem far less rigid and formal than academic writing. 

With business writing, the audience needs to be able to extrapolate the meaning of the text and the resulting action steps without needing to wade through complicated sentences and lengthy paragraphs. 

Tone and style of academic writing:

Formal, with longer sentences and well-developed paragraphs. Here’s an example:

According to recent research, audiences are far more responsive to advertising messages that portray models and actors within their own demographic. With this reasoning, one can assume that organizations should employ a diverse range of actors and models to appear in their advertising campaigns to ensure that these commercial messages resonate with a large percentage of viewers.  

Tone and style of business writing: 

Emphasis on keeping things short, clear, and as actionable as possible. Here’s an example:

Research shows that audiences connect more with advertising messages that showcase people in their own demographic. We should explore talent firms with diverse pools of models and actors.

2. Document structure

Reflect on most of the writing you did during your education, and this common essay format will probably pop into your head: introduction, body, conclusion. That was the tried and true formula you leaned on to complete most of your academic writing.

However, business writing has far more flexibility—mostly because there are so many different types and styles of business writing.

This means that writing in a business setting offers far more wiggle room to structure the writing to the appropriate purpose and audience. It doesn’t always stick to a specific approach the way most academic writing does. 

Structure of academic writing:

Introduction, body of the written work, and a conclusion. 

Structure of Business Writing: 

Varies greatly depending on what you’re writing. An email will be structured much differently than a performance review, for example. 

3. Audience

We touched on this briefly already, but the intended audience is another major component that separates business and academic writing.

With academic writing, students write for one crucial audience member: their instructor, who will be dishing out a grade on that written assignment. Occasionally other people will review that written work, but it’s almost always someone else who works within academia.

Business writing, in contrast, can be read and reviewed by a huge array of people—from colleagues to customers to board members to shareholders to competitors to regulatory agencies. 

The list goes on and on. This is partly because the aim is to keep business writing simple and straightforward. When you aren’t sure whose eyeballs will eventually land on it, it’s best to make things explicitly clear, so that all parties can comprehend it. 

Audience of academic writing:

Audience of business writing:

Almost anybody! 

4. Document design

This is another area where academic writing is far more rigid than business writing—mostly because the design of these written works is often dictated by the instructor. You remember the good ol’ days of 12-point Times New Roman font, double spacing, and appropriately-sized margins, right?

Again, with business writing, authors have far more flexibility to design their work in a way that’s most suitable to their purpose and intended audience.

Perhaps that’s a highly-visual business report with lots of graphs and charts to illustrate a point. Or, maybe it’s a one-page document with headings, subheadings, and bullet points to allow for easy skimming and scanning.

The design of business writing comes in many shapes and sizes, while academic writing typically falls into a standardized mold.

Design of academic writing:

Highly standardized with requirements for text style, font size, spacing, and margins.

Design of business writing: 

Flexible, depending on the purpose of the document and the audience. 

5. Writing process

If you’d ask me what my writing process looked like for any academic papers, I’d tell you this: It was many late nights spent bleary-eyed alone in front of my computer, with a mug of lukewarm coffee by my side.

Sound familiar? Much of the academic writing process takes place totally alone. The assignment is dished out by the professor, and the student is tasked with cranking out that document by the deadline in order to earn an individual grade.

Things don’t work that way in the business world, where writing is a far more collaborative process. When working on business writing, you’ll likely lean on the insights and expertise of numerous different people both inside and outside your organization to pull together something that makes sense.

Additionally, the process of writing an academic paper typically involved plenty of solo research. But, in a business environment, you usually tackle writing with far more existing context and background information received through meetings, previous projects, and other efforts. Most of the time, you aren’t approaching that subject totally cold. 

Process for academic writing:

Research and writing is done mostly solo.

Process for Business Writing:

A collaborative effort, with plenty of groundwork already laid for the author. 

6. Citations and sources

Sigh, citations. I remember cringing every time I needed to put together that detailed resources page for my academic papers. You remember the ones, right? They included everything from the authors' names, to the published date, to the volume number. The thought alone still sends a chill down my spine. 

With academic writing, students are required to cite their sources using a highly standardized format—often MLA or APA style . 

However, the rules for citing sources are far more lax with business writing and can often vary greatly depending on your company’s norms and regulations for quoting various sources. 

Citations and sources for academic writing:

Highly standardized and regulated. 

Citations and Sources for Business Writing:

Can vary based on the rules set by the individual company. 

7. Legal considerations

While students who produce academic writing absolutely need to avoid plagiarism of any kind, it’s not often that their written work will be used in any sort of court cases, legal proceedings, or anything of the sort.

But, in a business setting? People should be aware that the written work they produce is likely now the property of their employer and thus could be used as evidence in this manner if the need arises—whether it’s something like a wrongful termination lawsuit or even an audit. 

For that reason, ensuring accuracy is crucial whenever you’re writing, but particularly when you’re producing a document for your organization. 

Legal considerations for academic writing:

Avoiding plagiarism is the top legal concern. 

Legal Considerations for business writing:

Operate with the assumption that whatever you write could come back in a variety of legal matters. I won’t say it’s common, but it’s always better to play it safe! 

Over to you

As we’ve highlighted here, there are plenty of differences between academic writing and business writing. In fact, this isn’t even all of them—we’ve barely scratched the surface. 

You can dig into even more elements that separate these two styles with this fact sheet from the University of Oregon . It does a great job of breaking things down in an easily digestible way, and we used it as a resource for many of the differences we outlined here.

If you’re eager to learn even more about business writing in particular and how you can level up your own game at work? Make sure to check out our business writing course to dive into the nitty-gritty of how to be a top-notch writer in a business setting. 

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Kat is a writer specializing in career, self-development, and productivity topics. When she escapes her computer, she enjoys reading, hiking, golfing, and dishing out tips for prospective freelancers on her website.

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Technical Writing VS Academic Writing: What’s the Difference?

There are many types of writing. For example, there are technical writing and academic writing. Experienced professionals from College-Writers.com say some students think these two types of writing are similar, the truth is that these are two completely different categories.

Technical & Academic: Definitions

It may seem that academic writing should be more complicated and difficult because it is focused on some specific and narrow discipline. Indeed, this type of writing is often associated with the use of specific jargon. In addition, academic writing may describe very complicated concepts and provide specialized knowledge. However, technical writing may also contain jargon used in a certain industry.

As the name suggests, technical writing is intended to describe technical information. It may be focused on scientific subjects, engineering, etc. The term “technical writing” is used when referring to articles, training materials, documents, etc.

Technical writing may vary depending on the specifics of a particular industry. For instance, when you have to write documentation for hardware, this task is completely different from writing about software. Technical writing is also used in many other industries, including pharmaceutical, manufacturing, and so on.

Manufacturing enterprises and other organizations aim to satisfy customers delivering top-notch products and services. Thus, these companies put a lot of effort into ensuring comfort and safety. However, they also should have quality support documentation. Technical writers create such sorts of documentation in order to fulfill the needs of the company.

Different Objectives

Technical writing and academic writing also have completely different purposes. Academic writing is aimed to present a certain point of view on a particular subject. Academic papers present results of research and demonstrate someone’s knowledge. In turn, technical writing explains something to readers and informs them. Technical papers often explain how to use a certain product or service. Technical documents can also describe procedures used by the manufacturer to perform certain tasks. What technical and academic writing have in common is that both types may contain jargon.

Audiences Are Different

Academic and technical writing also target different audiences. Academic papers are usually intended for fellow scholars. However, there are also academic pieces of writing intended for a wide audience.

Technical writing is intended for people who use the product or service. Quite often, this type of writing is also aimed for government inspectors or people responsible for specific tasks.

What Should I Choose?

As you can see, it makes sense to choose a style depending on your audience. Actually, knowing the audience is the main rule of the writing of any kind. Once you’ve determined the audience, you can proceed to choose your style of writing. For example, if you need to write an article for an academic journal, you should stick with the academic style. On the other hand, if you need to write a manual on some gadget, the technical style will obviously be the best choice. The right style will help your readers understand all the necessary details.

Think of the Impact

Think of who will read your paper and ask yourself, what is your main goal? Your style may vary depending on what you want to accomplish. For example, if you’re writing for the general audience, which is quite diverse, you should choose the technical style. On the other hand, if you want to persuade your readers, the academic style will be a better choice. Academic writing enables you to provide reasons, evidence, and various details related to your assumption. If you want to persuade your readers, put more effort into writing a strong conclusion that will make an impact.

Career Options

If you become a technical writer, you will be able to find jobs in various industries, including pharmaceutical, IT, manufacturing, etc. There are many companies from all over the world that look for talented technical writers who can describe their devices and technical processes. You can also choose some narrow niche, for example, a certain type of software or hardware, and work in this area.

Academic writers should have better writing skills in order to write academic articles. Academic writers can also work as thesis writers, essay writers, dissertation writers, and so on. If you choose to work in the academic field, you will write white papers, research reports, and many other types of academic papers.

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Reports and essays: key differences

Know what to expect

Explore the main differences between reports and essays and how to write for your assignments

You'll complete assignments with different requirements throughout your degree, so it's important to understand what you need to do for each of them. Here we explore the key differences between reports and essays. 

This page describes general features of academic reports and essays. Depending on your subject you may use all of these features, a selection of them, or you may have additional requirements. 

There is no single right way to write a report or essay, but they are different assignments. At a glance: 

• Reports depend heavily on your subject and the type of report.
• Essays usually have specific content and a planned structure with a focus on sense and flow. You subject might need different types of information in your introduction –  some disciplines include a short background and context here, while others begin their discussion, discuss their resources or briefly signpost the topic.

Differences between reports and essays

This table compares reports and essays and provides an outline of the standard structure for each. Your assignment will also depend on your discipline, the purpose of your work, and your audience – so you should check what you need to do in your course and module handbooks, instructions from your lecturer, and your subject conventions.

Table adapted from Cottrell, 2003, p. 209.

The structure of reports

Most reports use an IMRaD structure: Introduction, Methods, Results and Discussion.

Below are some common sections that also appear in reports. Some sections include alternative headings.

1. Table of contents

Your contents shows the number of each report section, its title, page number and any sub-sections. Sub-section numbers and details start under the section title, not the margin or the number.

2. Abstract or Executive summary

This brief summary of the report is usually the last thing you write.

3. Introduction

Your introduction describes the purpose of the report, explains why it necessary or useful, and sets out its precise aims and objectives.

4. Literature review

This describes current research and thinking about the problem or research question, and is often incorporated into the introduction.

5. Methods or Methodology

This describes and justifies the methods or processes used to collect your data.

6. Results or Findings

This section presents the results (or processed data) from the research and may consist of mainly tables, charts and or diagrams.

7. Discussion, or Analysis, or Interpretation

This section analyses the results and evaluates the research carried out.

8. Conclusion

The conclusion summarises the report and usually revisits the aims and objectives.

9. Recommendations

In this section the writer uses the results and conclusions from the report to make practical suggestions about a problem or issue. This may not be required.

10. Appendices

You can include raw data or materials that your report refers to in the appendix, if you need to. The data is often presented as charts, diagrams and tables. Each item should be numbered : for example, write Table 1 and its title; Table 2 and its title, and so on as needed.

Structure of essays

Introduction.

Your essay introduction contextualises and gives background information about the topic or questions being discussed, and sets out what the essay is going to cover.

Your essay body is divided into paragraphs. These paragraphs help make a continuous, flowing text.

The conclusion summarises the main points made in the essay. Avoid introducing new information in your conclusion.

Bibliography or Reference list

This is a list of the resources you've used in your essay. This is usually presented alphabetically by authors’ surname.

Reference for the Table of Distinctions above: 

Cottrell, S. (2003).  The Study Skills Handbook  (2nd ed.). Basingstoke: Palgrave.

Download our report and essay differences revision sheet

Download this page as a PDF for your report and essay revision notes.

Key features of academic reports

Basic essay structure

Writing clear sentences

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Home » Language » Difference Between Technical Writing and Literary Writing

Difference Between Technical Writing and Literary Writing

Main difference –  technical writing vs literary writing.

Technical writing and Literary writing are two important writing styles used by writers depending on the subject matter, purpose and intended audience. The main difference between technical writing and literary writing is that, literary language is the writing style used in literary work while technical writing is a style used in writing for a particular field. Let us first briefly analyze theses two styles separately before discussing the difference between technical writing and literary writing.

What is Literary Writing

Literary writing is a style of writing that is used in creative and literary work; this is the style of writing that is used in fiction . Examples for literary writing includes poems, novels, short stories, dramas etc. The most significant difference between literary writing and other styles of writing is that the language used in literary writing uses many literary figures . Observe the below-given stanza to observe this feature.

“I wandered lonely as a cloud

That floats on high o’er vales and hills,

When all at once I saw a crowd,

A host, of golden daffodils;

Beside the lake, beneath the trees,

                                                                        Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.”                                                                                       

(First stanza from William Wordsworth’s “I wandered Lonely As a Cloud”)

A Novel, an example for literary writing

What is Technical Writing

Technical writing is a style of writing used in delivering technical information regarding a particular subject. Here, the intended audience should have a certain knowledge about the subject in order to understand the technical jargon and the meaning of the text. Technical writing is the style of writing that is mostly observed in Non-fiction. Examples for technical writing include essays , manuals, reports etc. This style of writing is direct and simple. If we were to express the idea conveyed in the above poem in technical writing, we’d simply say. “The narrator was walking alone, when he saw a patch of daffodils near the lake.”

A Manual, an example for Technical Writing

Let us now look at the differences between technical writing and literary writing,

Definition:

Technical writing:   Technical writing is a process of managing technical information in a way that allow people to take actions.

Literary writing:   Literary writing is a creating innovative, creative work, such as poems or novels, and compilations or volumes of creative work.

Technical Writing: Written to inform, instruct readers about a certain thing.

Literary Writing: Written to entertain, amuse readers.

Technical Writing:   The language used in technical writing is direct, factua l, and straightforward.

Literary Writing:  The language used in literary writing is creative, imaginative and uses literary techniques like hyperbole, personification, similes, metaphors, etc.

Technical Writing: Technical Writing appeals to the mind.

Literary Writing: Literary Writing appeals to emotions.

Technical Writing: Technical writing has technical vocabulary, simple sentences, impersonal, objective tone .

Literary Writing: Literary writing might have complex sentence structure and linguistic aspects like dialects, ambiguity, etc.

Technical Writing: Technical writing is written for those who are knowledgeable about that particular subject area.

Literary Writing: Literary writing is written for general readers.

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Hasanthi is a seasoned content writer and editor with over 8 years of experience. Armed with a BA degree in English and a knack for digital marketing, she explores her passions for literature, history, culture, and food through her engaging and informative writing.

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Technical Writing vs. Literary Writing: Key Differences

Technical Writing vs Literary Writing

Technical and literary writing are two distinct writing styles used by authors depending on the subject matter, audience, and purpose of writing. Writing serves as a form of communication; however, often a piece is written to appeal to a specific category of readers rather than a broad cross section of readers. When a text is about a scientific subject and requires the use of technical specifications and jargon, it will have a different content and style than a piece written by a storyteller. This distinction represents the primary difference between technical writing and literary writing. Let’s examine each style more closely.

Technical Writing

Technical writing is a style chosen by scientists and experts in technical subjects to describe subject matter containing technical words. This style is intended for readers with specific interests in technical subjects. However, technical writing is not limited to technical or scientific subjects; a writer can choose to write on any topic technically. The primary goal of this writing style is to inform as much as possible, and it is often persuasive, as if urging the reader to take some action.

For example, if a writer presents an essay on global warming, including all scientific facts and figures, their intention is to make the reader think about the severe situation of climate change and global warming. The essay will be full of scientific details, with a formal tone. The text is factual, and the writer tries to be as straightforward as possible, with the length of the text only as long as necessary. Technical writing is restricted by standard formats, limiting the writer’s freedom of expression.

Key Takeaways

• Technical writing is primarily informative and persuasive, while literary writing is more focused on entertainment and emotional arousal.
• Technical writing is bound by standard formats and has limited freedom of expression, while literary writing allows for more flexibility and creativity.
• The intended audience for technical writing is usually experts and academics, while literary writing targets a general audience.

Literary Writing

Certain texts are not necessary to read, but we read them because they entertain or educate us in a writing style that is flowing and full of figures of speech. Literary writing also aims to educate, but writers have more freedom to evoke readers’ emotions.

Literary writing can be personal and informal at times. The text is often lyrical or prosaic, with a lot of flexibility available to the writer. Literary writing has an aesthetic appeal, and writers take care to make it enjoyable for readers. There is no word limit for literary writing, and this style has a long history.

Differences Between Technical Writing and Literary Writing

• The content and writing style of technical writing differ from literary writing due to vastly different subject matter. • The intended audiences for technical writing are academics and experts, while literary writing is for general readers. • The main purpose of technical writing is to inform and prompt action from readers, whereas the primary purpose of literary writing is to entertain and evoke emotions. • Technical writing is straightforward and to the point, while literary writing makes use of figures of speech. • Technical writing is non-fiction, whereas literary writing is mostly fiction. • Logic and reasoning dominate technical writing, while humanism is the main characteristic of literary writing.

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*Please see evaluation details for setting and parameters with which these evaluations are calculated.

In the development of Llama 3, we looked at model performance on standard benchmarks and also sought to optimize for performance for real-world scenarios. To this end, we developed a new high-quality human evaluation set. This evaluation set contains 1,800 prompts that cover 12 key use cases: asking for advice, brainstorming, classification, closed question answering, coding, creative writing, extraction, inhabiting a character/persona, open question answering, reasoning, rewriting, and summarization. To prevent accidental overfitting of our models on this evaluation set, even our own modeling teams do not have access to it. The chart below shows aggregated results of our human evaluations across of these categories and prompts against Claude Sonnet, Mistral Medium, and GPT-3.5.

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To develop a great language model, we believe it’s important to innovate, scale, and optimize for simplicity. We adopted this design philosophy throughout the Llama 3 project with a focus on four key ingredients: the model architecture, the pretraining data, scaling up pretraining, and instruction fine-tuning.

Model architecture

In line with our design philosophy, we opted for a relatively standard decoder-only transformer architecture in Llama 3. Compared to Llama 2, we made several key improvements. Llama 3 uses a tokenizer with a vocabulary of 128K tokens that encodes language much more efficiently, which leads to substantially improved model performance. To improve the inference efficiency of Llama 3 models, we’ve adopted grouped query attention (GQA) across both the 8B and 70B sizes. We trained the models on sequences of 8,192 tokens, using a mask to ensure self-attention does not cross document boundaries.

Training data

To train the best language model, the curation of a large, high-quality training dataset is paramount. In line with our design principles, we invested heavily in pretraining data. Llama 3 is pretrained on over 15T tokens that were all collected from publicly available sources. Our training dataset is seven times larger than that used for Llama 2, and it includes four times more code. To prepare for upcoming multilingual use cases, over 5% of the Llama 3 pretraining dataset consists of high-quality non-English data that covers over 30 languages. However, we do not expect the same level of performance in these languages as in English.

To ensure Llama 3 is trained on data of the highest quality, we developed a series of data-filtering pipelines. These pipelines include using heuristic filters, NSFW filters, semantic deduplication approaches, and text classifiers to predict data quality. We found that previous generations of Llama are surprisingly good at identifying high-quality data, hence we used Llama 2 to generate the training data for the text-quality classifiers that are powering Llama 3.

We also performed extensive experiments to evaluate the best ways of mixing data from different sources in our final pretraining dataset. These experiments enabled us to select a data mix that ensures that Llama 3 performs well across use cases including trivia questions, STEM, coding, historical knowledge, etc.

Scaling up pretraining

To effectively leverage our pretraining data in Llama 3 models, we put substantial effort into scaling up pretraining. Specifically, we have developed a series of detailed scaling laws for downstream benchmark evaluations. These scaling laws enable us to select an optimal data mix and to make informed decisions on how to best use our training compute. Importantly, scaling laws allow us to predict the performance of our largest models on key tasks (for example, code generation as evaluated on the HumanEval benchmark—see above) before we actually train the models. This helps us ensure strong performance of our final models across a variety of use cases and capabilities.

We made several new observations on scaling behavior during the development of Llama 3. For example, while the Chinchilla-optimal amount of training compute for an 8B parameter model corresponds to ~200B tokens, we found that model performance continues to improve even after the model is trained on two orders of magnitude more data. Both our 8B and 70B parameter models continued to improve log-linearly after we trained them on up to 15T tokens. Larger models can match the performance of these smaller models with less training compute, but smaller models are generally preferred because they are much more efficient during inference.

To train our largest Llama 3 models, we combined three types of parallelization: data parallelization, model parallelization, and pipeline parallelization. Our most efficient implementation achieves a compute utilization of over 400 TFLOPS per GPU when trained on 16K GPUs simultaneously. We performed training runs on two custom-built 24K GPU clusters . To maximize GPU uptime, we developed an advanced new training stack that automates error detection, handling, and maintenance. We also greatly improved our hardware reliability and detection mechanisms for silent data corruption, and we developed new scalable storage systems that reduce overheads of checkpointing and rollback. Those improvements resulted in an overall effective training time of more than 95%. Combined, these improvements increased the efficiency of Llama 3 training by ~three times compared to Llama 2.

Instruction fine-tuning

To fully unlock the potential of our pretrained models in chat use cases, we innovated on our approach to instruction-tuning as well. Our approach to post-training is a combination of supervised fine-tuning (SFT), rejection sampling, proximal policy optimization (PPO), and direct preference optimization (DPO). The quality of the prompts that are used in SFT and the preference rankings that are used in PPO and DPO has an outsized influence on the performance of aligned models. Some of our biggest improvements in model quality came from carefully curating this data and performing multiple rounds of quality assurance on annotations provided by human annotators.

Learning from preference rankings via PPO and DPO also greatly improved the performance of Llama 3 on reasoning and coding tasks. We found that if you ask a model a reasoning question that it struggles to answer, the model will sometimes produce the right reasoning trace: The model knows how to produce the right answer, but it does not know how to select it. Training on preference rankings enables the model to learn how to select it.

Building with Llama 3

Our vision is to enable developers to customize Llama 3 to support relevant use cases and to make it easier to adopt best practices and improve the open ecosystem. With this release, we’re providing new trust and safety tools including updated components with both Llama Guard 2 and Cybersec Eval 2, and the introduction of Code Shield—an inference time guardrail for filtering insecure code produced by LLMs.

We’ve also co-developed Llama 3 with torchtune , the new PyTorch-native library for easily authoring, fine-tuning, and experimenting with LLMs. torchtune provides memory efficient and hackable training recipes written entirely in PyTorch. The library is integrated with popular platforms such as Hugging Face, Weights & Biases, and EleutherAI and even supports Executorch for enabling efficient inference to be run on a wide variety of mobile and edge devices. For everything from prompt engineering to using Llama 3 with LangChain we have a comprehensive getting started guide and takes you from downloading Llama 3 all the way to deployment at scale within your generative AI application.

A system-level approach to responsibility

We have designed Llama 3 models to be maximally helpful while ensuring an industry leading approach to responsibly deploying them. To achieve this, we have adopted a new, system-level approach to the responsible development and deployment of Llama. We envision Llama models as part of a broader system that puts the developer in the driver’s seat. Llama models will serve as a foundational piece of a system that developers design with their unique end goals in mind.

Instruction fine-tuning also plays a major role in ensuring the safety of our models. Our instruction-fine-tuned models have been red-teamed (tested) for safety through internal and external efforts. ​​Our red teaming approach leverages human experts and automation methods to generate adversarial prompts that try to elicit problematic responses. For instance, we apply comprehensive testing to assess risks of misuse related to Chemical, Biological, Cyber Security, and other risk areas. All of these efforts are iterative and used to inform safety fine-tuning of the models being released. You can read more about our efforts in the model card .

Llama Guard models are meant to be a foundation for prompt and response safety and can easily be fine-tuned to create a new taxonomy depending on application needs. As a starting point, the new Llama Guard 2 uses the recently announced MLCommons taxonomy, in an effort to support the emergence of industry standards in this important area. Additionally, CyberSecEval 2 expands on its predecessor by adding measures of an LLM’s propensity to allow for abuse of its code interpreter, offensive cybersecurity capabilities, and susceptibility to prompt injection attacks (learn more in our technical paper ). Finally, we’re introducing Code Shield which adds support for inference-time filtering of insecure code produced by LLMs. This offers mitigation of risks around insecure code suggestions, code interpreter abuse prevention, and secure command execution.

With the speed at which the generative AI space is moving, we believe an open approach is an important way to bring the ecosystem together and mitigate these potential harms. As part of that, we’re updating our Responsible Use Guide (RUG) that provides a comprehensive guide to responsible development with LLMs. As we outlined in the RUG, we recommend that all inputs and outputs be checked and filtered in accordance with content guidelines appropriate to the application. Additionally, many cloud service providers offer content moderation APIs and other tools for responsible deployment, and we encourage developers to also consider using these options.

Deploying Llama 3 at scale

Llama 3 will soon be available on all major platforms including cloud providers, model API providers, and much more. Llama 3 will be everywhere .

Our benchmarks show the tokenizer offers improved token efficiency, yielding up to 15% fewer tokens compared to Llama 2. Also, Group Query Attention (GQA) now has been added to Llama 3 8B as well. As a result, we observed that despite the model having 1B more parameters compared to Llama 2 7B, the improved tokenizer efficiency and GQA contribute to maintaining the inference efficiency on par with Llama 2 7B.

For examples of how to leverage all of these capabilities, check out Llama Recipes which contains all of our open source code that can be leveraged for everything from fine-tuning to deployment to model evaluation.

What’s next for Llama 3?

The Llama 3 8B and 70B models mark the beginning of what we plan to release for Llama 3. And there’s a lot more to come.

Our largest models are over 400B parameters and, while these models are still training, our team is excited about how they’re trending. Over the coming months, we’ll release multiple models with new capabilities including multimodality, the ability to converse in multiple languages, a much longer context window, and stronger overall capabilities. We will also publish a detailed research paper once we are done training Llama 3.

To give you a sneak preview for where these models are today as they continue training, we thought we could share some snapshots of how our largest LLM model is trending. Please note that this data is based on an early checkpoint of Llama 3 that is still training and these capabilities are not supported as part of the models released today.

We’re committed to the continued growth and development of an open AI ecosystem for releasing our models responsibly. We have long believed that openness leads to better, safer products, faster innovation, and a healthier overall market. This is good for Meta, and it is good for society. We’re taking a community-first approach with Llama 3, and starting today, these models are available on the leading cloud, hosting, and hardware platforms with many more to come.

Try Meta Llama 3 today

We’ve integrated our latest models into Meta AI, which we believe is the world’s leading AI assistant. It’s now built with Llama 3 technology and it’s available in more countries across our apps.

You can use Meta AI on Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, Messenger, and the web to get things done, learn, create, and connect with the things that matter to you. You can read more about the Meta AI experience here .

Visit the Llama 3 website to download the models and reference the Getting Started Guide for the latest list of all available platforms.

You’ll also soon be able to test multimodal Meta AI on our Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses.

As always, we look forward to seeing all the amazing products and experiences you will build with Meta Llama 3.

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